Materials received from Janina Domanska between 1966 and 1990.
Non-circulating; available for research.
This 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.
Janina Domanska was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland. Soon after her graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1939, World War II began with the Nazi invasion and subsequent occupation of Poland. Domanska was shipped to a concentration camp in Germany; miraculously, only days after her arrival there she was freed. A prominent free Polish citizen, a doctor, noticed her sketching one day and arranged to have her released in exchange for portraits she would paint of his family. She remained with the doctor's family until the end of the war, when she returned to the ruins of Warsaw.
In 1946 Domanska left Poland and studied painting in Italy, where she supported herself by painting children's portraits. She emigrated to the United States in 1952. Though she could speak four languages, English was unknown to her. Upon her arrival in the United States she worked for four years as a textile designer because the occupation did not require fluency in English. In 1953 she married the writer Jerzy Laskowski.
As Domanska's English skills improved she began to spend her lunch hours showing her drawings to various publishers. These drawings were not originally intended for children, but because her work had so many depictions of children and animals she was encouraged to concentrate on illustrating children's books.
After visiting publishers for two months, her first assignment came from Harper's magazine, and the first book containing her illustrations was published in 1960. To date she has illustrated more than forty books, many of them written by herself, and has won several prestigious honors and awards for her work. Award-winning books include If All the Seas Were One Sea (1971), a Caldecott Honor Book, What Do You See? and Din Dan Don It's Christmas, which were ALA Notables for 1974 and 1975, respectively. Her artwork has been displayed in galleries in both Warsaw and Rome.
Janina Domanska passed away in February 1995 at the age of 82.
The collection contains correspondence to and from the de Grummond Collection, materials related to ten of Domanska's published books, and design materials and printed copies of original greeting cards. The correspondence is arranged chronologically, whereas the books are arranged alphabetically by title, and materials within each title are arranged according to the probable order in which they were created.
Domanska's first published work is represented in the collection by the original map drawn by her for The Key to London (1960). For The Coconut Thieves (1964), an ALA Notable for 1964, the collection includes a dummy and several color separations. Domanska's masterful use of collage, ink and delicate watercolors is evident in the dummy for The Black Heart of Indri (1966). There are numerous color separations for The Dragon Liked Smoked Fish (1967), which was authored by Domanska's late husband Jerzy Laskowski. The Trumpeter of Krakow (1966) is represented by an original illustration and a printed Christmas card featuring another illustration from the book. For Edward Lear's Whizz! (1973) the collection holds a dummy for the dust jacket. Sadie Rose Weilerstein's Ten and a Kid (1961) is well represented by the complete illustrations for the book as well as proofs and other materials.
The largest holdings are for Look, There is a Turtle Flying (1968), which was both written and illustrated by Janina Domanska. For this title there are color separations, proofs, press sheets, paste-ups, dust jacket material, and a dummy. For Palmiero and the Ogre (1967), also written and illustrated by Domanska, there is a complete typescript that has been corrected and marked for the typesetter. The Art of Polish Cooking (1968), an adult cookbook illustrated by Domanska, is represented by fourteen original illustrations.
The collection also contains material related to greeting cards designed by Domanska. These materials were left with corresponding titles when appropriate. The Christmas card designed for the de Grummond Collection in 1982 is represented by layouts, a dummy, color separations, and a printed card. Other greeting card materials include dummies and printed cards with illustrations by Domanska taken from the books Marilka (1970) and Din Dan Don It's Christmas (1975).
Series and Subseries
A. Correspondence (1966-1990)
B. Books (1960-1973)
C. Greeting Cards
Box Inventory
Box/Folder
A. Correspondence
1/1 To and from the de Grummond Collection, 1966-1990, 26 items.
B. Books
THE ART OF POLISH COOKING by Alina Zeranska,
illustrated by Janina Domanska (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968).
1/2 Illustrations, pp. 3-341, 14 items.
THE BLACK HEART OF INDRI adapted by Dorothy Hoge,
illustrated by Janina Domanska (New York: Scribner, 1966).
1/3 Dummy, ink, watercolor and collage.
THE COCONUT THIEVES adapted by Catharine Fournier,
illustrated by Janina Domanska (New York: Scribner, 1964).
1/4 Dummy, ink, watercolor and collage.
Color separations, pp. 10, 16, 25, 32, 4 items.
THE DRAGON LIKED SMOKED FISH by Jerzy Laskowski,
pictures by Janina Domanska (New York: Seabury Press, 1967).
1/5-2/2 Color separations,
1/5 title page, half-title, pp. 6-11, 15 items;
1/6 pp. 12-17, 12 items;
2/1 pp. 18-25, 16 items;
2/2 pp. 26-32, 16 items.
THE KEY TO LONDON by Alicia Street, illustrated
by Janina Domanska (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960).
2/3 Illustration, p. 6.
LOOK, THERE IS A TURTLE FLYING story and
pictures by Janina Domanska (New York: Macmillan, 1968).
3/1 Dummy, ink, watercolor and collage.
3/2 Paste-ups, title page, frontispiece and title page, 2 items.
Proof layouts, pp. 1-32, endpapers, 18 items.
3/3-3/13 Color separations,
3/3 pp. 5, 12, 4 items;
3/4 pp. 1, 8, 9, 16, 4 items;
3/5 pp. 23, 26, 31, 4 items;
3/6 pp. 20, 21, 28, 29, 4 items;
3/7 pp. 22, 27, 30, 4 items;
3/8 pp. 17, 24, 25, 32, 4 items;
3/9 pp. 3, 6, 11, 14, 4 items;
3/10 pp. 2, 7, 10, 15, 4 items;
3/11 pp. 18, 19, 7 items;
3/12 endpapers, 4 items;
3/13 dust jacket, 4 items.
3/14 Dust jacket material: dummy, paste-up, and press sheet, 3 items.
3/15 Press sheets, 2 items (one item stored separately).
3/16 Christmas card: paste-up and printed card, 2 items.
PALMIERO AND THE OGRE story and pictures by Janina
Domanska (New York: Macmillan, 1967).
4/1 Typescript, corrected and marked for typesetter, 7 pp.
TEN AND A KID by Sadie Rose Weilerstein, pictures by
Janina Domanska (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961).
4/2-5/3 Illustrations, ink,
4/2 dedication page, pages 12-15, 19, 22-23, 25, 6 items;
4/3 pp. 27, 31, 41, 44-45, 50, 5 items;
4/4 pp. 55, 59, 61, 64, 67, 5 items;
4/5 pp. 70-71, 73, 74, 81, 89, 5 items;
4/6 pp. 94-95, 97-98, 99, 103, 105, 5 items;
5/1 pp. 111, 117, 120, 125, 128, 5 items;
5/2 pp. 133, 134, 141, 147, 149, 5 items;
5/3 pp. 155, 167, 172, 175, 178-79, 5 items;
decorations, pp. 30, 48, 53, 88, 108, 1 item.
5/4 Paste-up, dedication page text.
Sample lettering, 1 item.
Proofs, pp. 39, 87, 2 items.
THE TRUMPETER OF KRAKOW by Eric P. Kelly,
decorations by Janina Domanska (New York: Macmillan, 1966).
5/5 Illustration, p. 141.
Christmas card.
WHIZZ! by Edward Lear, pictures by Janina Domanska
(New York: Macmillan, 1973).
5/6 Dummy, ink, watercolor and collage, dust jacket only.
C. Greeting Cards
5/7 Christmas card designed for de Grummond Collection, 1982, 7 items.
5/8 Dummies, proofs, and printed cards designed by Domanska, 6 items.
Processed: October 1991
Revised: June 4, 2001
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