After our father’s death in 2001 we three siblings inherited 13 steamer trunks full of manuscripts, research material, and original artwork.
It took us some years to figure out exactly what to do with it all, but eventually decisions were made. After choosing what we wanted to keep in our personal collection, we asked for advice from notable people we knew in the field, including writer/illustrator Maurice Sendak, prominent children’s literature author and critic, Leonard Marcus, the chief curator of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, H. Nichols B. Clark, and Mrs. Billie M. Levy, one of the founders of the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection.
The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at UConn seemed the perfect place.
997 kilos of papers, letters, archives, illustrations and original artwork were shipped off and are now at The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at UCONN.
In the professional hands of the Curator (since retired) Terri Goldich and with the assistance of Jorge Santos, a PhD candidate in the English department, an amazing job of archiving was done.
It makes us so happy to know everything has been professionally archived and people will be able to study our father’s artwork in the future.
According to Terri, the work is an important addition to the collection, not only because of Leonard’s stature in the children’s literature world but because of the depth and breadth of the collection materials.
“ Once processed, researchers will be able to gain a deeper knowledge of the creative processes Leonard employed as well as get to know him as father and husband, as evidenced by the illustrated personal letters and notes between, him, his children and his wife,” Goldich said.
We thank everyone who has helped us in finding this new home for the archives/artwork. We also encourage everyone who is interested to visit The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.