Children's Historical Collection

The primary emphasis of this collection donated by Anne Thaxter Eaton is children's books of the 19th century. There are some 18th as well as a few 20th-century items among the 500 volumes in the collection. Judging by the very poor condition of the books they must have been uniformly well used and abused regardless of their age.

There are examples of original Caldecott picturebooks, McGuffey's readers, as well as first editions of fables and stories illustrated by Arthur Rackham. In its entirety the collection reflects a good cross-section of the variety and types of educational and recreational periodicals, storybooks, primers and novels available to the children of the past century.