Material received from Barbara Cooney between 1973 and 1990.
Noncirculating; available for research.
The collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. Code). Reproductions can be made only if they are to be used for "private study, scholarship, or research." It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials, other than that noted above.
Barbara Cooney and her twin brother were born on August 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, where they lived for only two weeks before moving to Long Island. Cooney's father was a stockbroker; her mother was an artist. She attributes her interest in art to the fact that tubes of paint, brushes, paper and other art supplies were readily available as she grew up. After receiving her bachelor's degree in art history from Smith College in 1938, Cooney studied lithography and etching at the Art Students' League in New York City. In 1940 she illustrated Bertie Malmberg's Ake and His World. In 1941 the first of her own books, King of Wreck Island, was published.
In 1942 Cooney joined the Women's Army Corps and later that same year married Guy Murchie, a war correspondent and author. They had two children. Murchie and Cooney divorced in 1947, and in 1949 she married C. Talbot Porter, a medical doctor. They also had two children.
Cooney drew what was familiar to her. Many of the plants drawn for her Caldecott-winning book Chanticleer and the Fox, an adaptation of Chaucer's "Nun's Priest Tale," were from her own garden. Chickens, borrowed from a neighbor, also served as models. Many of her more than eighty books resulted from her travels to Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, England, France, Haiti, India, Tunisia and Greece. Early in her career, Cooney worked primarily in scratchboard. Later she began working in pen and ink, pen and ink with wash, casein, collage, watercolor, and acrylic, illustrating books written by both herself and others.
Cooney won the Caldecott Medal in 1959, the University of Southern Mississippi's Silver Medallion in 1975 and the Smith College Medal in 1976. She illustrated a number of award-winning books, including Green Wagons, Kildee House, Miss Rumphius, Ox-Cart Man,Too Many Pets, When the Sky Is Like Lace, and Squawk to the Moon, Little Goose.
Barbara Cooney passed away in 2000 at the age of 83.
The collection contains correspondence from Cooney to the de Grummond Collection (1973-1990), photographs of Cooney, material for thirty-six books published between 1943 and 1979, color separations for stories appearing in the Best in Children's Books series, and 45 miscellaneous and unidentified illustrations. The materials in the collection span more than forty years of Cooney's career and are representative of her expertise in scratchboard illustration. Book titles are arranged alphabetically; arrangement of items within each title reflects the probable order in which they were created.
The collection includes items for two titles both written and illustrated by Cooney. For A Garland of Games and Other Diversions (1969), an alphabet book of amusing, alliterative poems, the collection includes a dummy, typescript, illustrations and a proof. Captain Pottle's House (1943), is represented by ink and watercolor illustrations.
The collection includes materials for several award-winning titles. The Ox-Cart Man (1979), written by Donald Hall, won the 1980 Caldecott and the 1979 New York Times Best Illustrated awards for the watercolor illustrations represented in this collection. Both The Ox-Cart Man and Squawk to the Moon, Little Goose (1974) were named New York Times Outstanding Books. The collection holds proofs of Edna Mitchell Preston's Squawk, the story of what happens to Little Goose when he disobeys his mother. Everyone but Father likes animals in Too Many Pets (1952), winner of the Spring Book Festival picture book honor, for which the collection includes scratchboard illustrations.
Scratchboard illustrations for two Rutherford Montgomery titles are present in the Cooney Papers. In Kildee House (1949), a 1950 Newbery Honor Book, Old Grouch, the raccoon, refuses to move out of his redwood tree when Jerome Kildee decides to build a house against it. Hill Ranch (1951) is the story of Obie, a high school boy whose search for a summer job leads him to a farm.
The collection holds illustrations, color separations, a proof and a dust jacket for three Ruth Crawford Seeger folk song books: American Folk Songs for Children (1948), traditional songs gathered from North America; American Folk Songs for Christmas (1953), familiar Christmas music; and Animal Folk Songs for Children (1950), amusing songs about animals.
Read Me Another Story (1949) and Read Me More Stories (1951) are collections of stories for very young children and beginning readers. The Cooney Papers includes scratchboard illustrations for both titles and dust jacket material for the former.
Elisabeth Carleton Lansing's pony books form a trilogy. The Pony That Ran Away (1951), The Pony That Kept a Secret (1952) and A Pony Worth His Salt (1953) recount stories about Ted, Sue, Robby, their pony Twinkle and duck Jamima. Illustrations and dust jacket materials represent Cooney's work on these titles. For The Rocky Summer (1948),The Best Christmas, and The Quarry Adventure (1951) by Lee Kingman the collection contains Cooney's scratchboard illustrations and dust jacket material for the first.
A family of mice who live in a cozy attic meet with many adventures in The Graymouse Family 1950), for which the collection holds scratchboard illustrations. For The House Mouse (1973), the story of a pet mouse who lives extravagantly in a doll house, the collection includes graphite and watercolor illustrations. After many misadventures, a stray cat finally gets a home in The Blot: Little City Cat (1946), for which the collection includes scratchboard illustrations, endpaper material, and dust jacket material.
The Pepper family struggles and learns in Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1954). For this title the collection contains illustrations and a proof. A little boy meets with adventure when he goes on a fishing trip in Fun For Freddie (1953), a title for which the collection holds scratchboard illustrations, an ink and watercolor illustration, and a color separation for the dust jacket. Twelve-year-old Maggie's first summer at camp is the subject of Just Plain Maggie (1950), for which the collection contains scratchboard illustrations and dust jacket materials.
The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes (1950) is about a man who refused to clean his kitchen until every last dish was dirty; for this title the collection has color separations. For Pepper, the story of the Baily family's adventures when Aleck brings home a baby raccoon, the collection has illustrations and color separations. Ann Darnell devises a plan to entertain not only her family but the entire town during the dreary months of summer in Shoestring Theater (1947). For this title the collection has scratchboard illustrations and a color separation for the dust jacket. For Shooting Star Farm(1946) the collection has illustrations.
For Yours, With Love, Kate (1952), the story of a young girl growing up in Maine in the nineteenth century, the collection has scratchboard illustrations and a watercolor illustration for the dust jacket. For Away We Go: One Hundred Poems for the Very Young (1956) the collection has scratchboard illustrations and a color separation for the dust jacket. Friends With God (1956) is a collection of family prayers and stories; for this title, the collection has a dummy, color separations and proofs. The collections holds only dust jackets for All in a Suitcase (1966), Demeter and Persephone, (1972), Le Hibou et La Poussiquette/The Owl and the Pussycat (1961), Mother Goose in Spanish (1968), and Snow-White and Rose-Red (1965).
Best in Children's Books is a multi-volume series comprised of many of the world's best loved children's stories. The collection has color separations of Cooney's illustrations for six stories and poems which appeared in this series: "Hansel and Gretel" (1957), "The Ugly Duckling" (1957), "Puss-in-Boots" (1958), "Animal Crackers and Other Poems" (1959), "Snip, Snap, Snurr, and the Buttered Bread" (1959), and "Childhood Poems" (1960).
The papers also include an illustration for the New York Herald Tribune Children's Spring Book Festival and forty-five unidentified illustrations, primarily in scratchboard.
Related Collections
The Lee Kingman Papers (DG0553); The Rutherford George Montgomery Papers (DG0709); The Dorothy Joan Harris Papers (DG0425); and The Miriam Mason Papers (DG0674)
BEST IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS (1957, 1959, 1960)
Box Inventory
Box/Folder
A. Correspondence
1/1 To the de Grummond Collection, 1973-1990, 8 items.
B. Photographs
1/2 Of Cooney; and Cooney and son, 1971 and undated, 5 items.
C. Books
ALL IN A SUITCASE by Samuel French Morse, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Little, Brown, 1966).
1/3 Dust jacket.
AMERICAN FOLK SONGS FOR CHILDREN by Ruth Crawford Seeger, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1948).
1/4-1/7 Illustrations, scratchboard,
1/4 pp. 50-75, 18 items;
1/5 pp. 77-105, 21 items;
1/6 pp. 106-150, 27 items;
1/7 pp. 151-183, 15 items.
2/1 Illustrations and musical scores, graphite and ink,
sample illustration and pp. 78-79.
Proof, p. 42.
Illustrations, scratchboard and watercolor, title page.
Illustration, ink and watercolor, dust jacket.
AMERICAN FOLK SONGS FOR CHRISTMAS by Ruth Crawford Seeger, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1953).
2/2 Illustrations, scratchboard, pp. 13-71, 8 items.
Color separation, dust jacket.
ANIMAL FOLK SONGS FOR CHILDREN by Ruth Crawford Seeger, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1950).
2/3-2/4 Illustrations, scratchboard,
2/3 pp. 14-23, 12 items;
2/4 pp. 45-80, 19 items.
AWAY WE GO: ONE HUNDRED POEMS FOR THE VERY YOUNG compiled by Catherine Schaefer McEwen,
illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: ThomasY. Crowell, 1956).
2/5 Illustrations, scratchboard, half title page, pp. 3-94, and
endpapers, 25 items.
2/6 Color separation, dust jacket.
THE BEST CHRISTMAS by Lee Kingman, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1949).
2/7 Illustrations, scratchboard, pp. 13-95, 21 items.
THE BLOT: LITTLE CITY CAT by Phyllis Crawford, illustrated by BarbaraCooney (New York: Holt, 1946).
3/1-3/2 Illustrations, scratchboard,
3/1 pp. 9-35, 11 items;
3/2 pp. 37-56, endpapers, 1 unpublished, 11 items.
3/3 Illustration, scratchboard, title page with text paste-up.
Endpaper material, 3 items.
Dust jacket material, 4 items.
CAPTAIN POTTLE'S HOUSE written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1943).
3/4 Illustrations, ink and watercolor, title page, pp. 3-173,
and dust jacket, 18 items.
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE translated by Penelope Proddow, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1972).
3/5 Dust jacket.
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS by Margaret Sidney, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1954).
3/6-3/7 Illustrations, pen and ink,
3/6 pp. 9-181, 28 items;
3/7 pp. 185-317, 19 items.
Illustration, ink and watercolor, frontispiece.
Proof, frontispiece.
FRIENDS WITH GOD by Catherine Marshall, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956).
3/8 Dummy, graphite and crayon.
4/1-4/3 Color separations,
4/1 title page, pp. 6, 10, 11, 12-13, 14, 15, 18-19, 22, 23, 26;
4/2 pp. 27-47 and dust jacket, 12 items.
4/3 unpaginated, 21 items.
4/4 Blueprint proof, annotated.
4/5 Proofs of color separations.
FUN FOR FREDDIE by Jane Quigg, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Oxford University Press, 1953).
4/6 Illustrations, scratchboard, pp. 12-106, 14 items.
Dust jacket material, 2 items.
A GARLAND OF GAMES & OTHER DIVERSIONS: AN ALPHABET BOOK by Barbara Cooney (New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969).
4/7 Typescript, edited for typesetter, 4 pp.
Dummy, ink, graphite and watercolor.
4/8 Illustrations, acrylic, title page, pp. 5-29, 19 items.
THE GRAYMOUSE FAMILY by Nellie M. Leonard, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Thomas Y.
Crowell, 1950).
5/1-5/3 Illustrations, scratchboard,
5/1 title, contents, pp. 2-60, 22 items;
5/2 pp. 75-149, 18 items;
5/3 pp. 151-205, dust jacket and 3 unpublished, 17 items.
HILL RANCH by Rutherford George Montgomery, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1951).
5/4 Illustrations, scratchboard, pp. 1-165, 16 items.
HOUSE MOUSE by Dorothy Joan Harris, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (NewYork: Frederick Warne, 1973).
5/5 Illustrations, graphite and watercolor, frontispiece, pp. 6-48, 22
items.
JUST PLAIN MAGGIE by Lorraine Beim, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Scholastic, 1950).
5/6 Illustrations, scratchboard, chapters 1-8, pp. 1-104, 8 items.
Dust jacket material, 3 items.
KILDEE HOUSE by Rutherford Montgomery, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1949).
5/7 Illustration, scratchboard, p. 166.
THE MAN WHO DIDN'T WASH HIS DISHES by Phyllis Krasilovsky, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City,
NY: Doubleday, 1950).
5/8-5/9 Color separations,
5/8 title page, pp. 6-18, 11 items;
5/9 pp. 19-33, dust jacket, 12 items.
MOTHER GOOSE IN SPANISH translated by Alastair Reed and Anthony Kerrigan, illustrated by Barbara Cooney
(New York: Crowell, 1968).
5/10 Dust jacket.
[THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT]/LE HIBOU ET LA POUSSIQUETTE by Frances Steegmuller, pictures by
Barbara Cooney (New York: Little Brown, 1961)
5/11 Dust jacket.
OX-CART MAN by Donald Hall, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Viking, 1979).
5/12 Illustration, acrylic and colored pencil, p. 9.
PEPPER by Barbara Leonard Reynolds, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1952).
6/1 Illustrations, scratchboard, pp. 1-151, 19 items.
6/2 Color separation, dust jacket.
THE PONY THAT KEPT A SECRET by Elisabeth Carleton Lansing, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Crowell,
1952).
6/3-6/4 Illustrations, scratchboard,
6/3 frontispiece, title page, pp. 1-53, 29 items;
6/4 pp. 55-117, endpapers, 27 items.
Color separation, dust jacket. (Stored in Box 11)
THE PONY THAT RAN AWAY by Elisabeth Carleton Lansing, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Crowell,
1951).
6/5-6/7 Illustrations, scratchboard,
6/5 frontispiece, title page, and pp. 1-37, 18 items;
6/6 pp. 38-101, 20 items;
6/7 pp. 103-147, endpapers, 18 items.
7/1 Color separation, dust jacket. (Stored in Box 11)
A PONY WORTH HIS SALT by Elisabeth Carleton Lansing, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Crowell,
1953).
7/2-7/4 Illustrations, scratchboard,
7/2 frontispiece, contents, pp. 6-47, 20 items;
7/3 pp. 59-113, 19 items;
7/4 pp. pp. 115-166, endpapers, 18 items.
7/5 Dust jacket material, 3 items. (1 item stored in Box 11)
THE QUARRY ADVENTURE by Lee Kingman, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1951).
7/6 Illustrations, scratchboard, pp. 3-207, 16 items.
READ ME ANOTHER STORY compiled by the Child Study Association of America, illustrated by Barbara
Cooney (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1949).
7/7-8/1 Illustrations, scratchboard,
7/7 contents, pp. 1-75, 25 items;
8/1 79-156, 23 items.
READ ME MORE STORIES compiled by the Child Study Association of America, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell, 1951).
8/2-8/5 Illustrations, scratchboard,
8/2 title page, contents, pp. 1-33, 29 items;
8/3 pp. 34-73, 28 items;
8/4 pp. 74-123, 28 items;
8/5 pp. 124-166, 27 items.
9/1 Color separation, dust jacket. (Stored in Box 11)
THE ROCKY SUMMER by Lee Kingman, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948).
9/2-9/3 Illustrations, scratchboard,
9/2 frontispiece, pp.1-128, 13 items;
9/3 pp. 138 - 210, and 9 unpublished, 15 items.
9/4 Dust jacket material, 3 items.
SHOESTRING THEATER by Nancy Hartwell, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Henry Holt, 1947).
9/5-9/6 Illustrations, scratchboard,
9/5 title page, pp. 1-82, 8 items;
9/6 pp. 93-191, and spine, 10 items.
9/7 Color separation, dust jacket.
SHOOTING STAR FARM by Anne Stearns Molloy, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946).
9/8 Illustrations, scratchboard, pp. 86, 119, 148, 160, 187,
216, 225.
Illustrations, pen and ink, pp. 11, 34, 46, 148.
SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED by the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Delacorte Press, 1965).
9/9 Dust jacket.
SQUAWK TO THE MOON, LITTLE GOOSE by Edna Mitchell Preston, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Viking, 1974).
9/10 Proofs, 16 items.
TOO MANY PETS by Mary M. Aldrich, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (New York: Macmillan, 1952).
9/11-9/12 Illustrations, scratchboard,
9/11 pp. 2-28, 8 items;
9/12 pp. 29-65, 8 items.
9/13 Dust jacket material, 3 items.
YOURS, WITH LOVE, KATE by Miriam E. Mason, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952).
10/1-10/3 Illustrations, scratchboard,
10/1 dedication page, pp. 5-126, 14 items;
10/2 pp. 134-276, 12 items;
10/3 endpapers.
Illustration, opaque watercolor, dust jacket.
D. Stories
BEST IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960).
"Hansel and Gretel" by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by
Barbara Cooney (1957), pp. 61-76.
10/4 Color separations, pp. 61, 63, 64, 66, 69, 70, 72, 74, 75.
"The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by
Barbara Cooney (1957), pp. 19-36.
10/5 Color separations, pp. 19, 20, 22, 25, 27, 29, 33, 35, 36.
"Puss-in-Boots" by Charles Perrault, illustrated by Barbara Cooney
(1958), pp. 64-76.
10/6 Color separations, pp. 64, 67, 69, 70-71, 72, 74, 75, 76.
"Animal Crackers and Other Poems" by Christopher Morley,
illustrated by Barbara Cooney (1959), pp. 45-57.
10/7 Color separations, 11 items.
"Snipp, Snapp, Snurr, and the Buttered Bread" by Maj Lindman,
illustrated by Barbara Cooney (1959), pp. 125-133.
10/8 Color separations, pp. 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131,
132, 133.
"Childhood Poems" illustrated by Barbara Cooney (1960), pp. 19-34.
10/9 Color separations, pp. 19-34, 14 items.
E. Miscellaneous and Unidentified Material
10/11 Illustration for New York Herald Tribune Children's Spring Book Festival, marker and transparent watercolor, undated.
Musical score, untitled, p. 18.
Illustrations, pen and ink, 4 items
10/12 Illustrations, scratchboard, 11 items.
10/13 Illustrations, scratchboard, 27 items.
11/1 Illustration, scratchboard, 1 item.
Mouse posters, pastel, 7 items. [stored separately]
Processed: September 1991
Revised: March 4, 1996, 3:0 p
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