LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COLLECTIONS POLICY STATEMENTS

Collections Policy Statement Index

Childrens Literature
Contents
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.

Scope
Research Strengths
Collecting Policy
Acquisition Sources: Current and Future
Collecting Levels

I. Scope
Childrens Literature is defined as material written and produced for the information or
entertainment of children and young adults. It includes all non-fiction, literary and artistic
genres and physical formats.
In the early days of the Library of Congress, childrens books arrived in an unsystematic fashion.
This situation changed with the Copyright Law of 1870, after which the Library began to
systematically assemble its unique childrens book collection. Today, the Cataloging in
Publication program is an additional source of childrens literature.
The largest single placement of childrens books occupies shelves in the PZ literature area.
English-language fiction, folklore, poetry, and simple books of science and technology is
followed by ranges of foreign-language fiction (except those in Eastern languages held by the
Asian Division, and those in middle Eastern and Central Asian languages held by the African and
Middle Eastern Division).
Beyond the PZ class, childrens books are scattered throughout the Librarys vast collections
and represent biography, history, geography, science, technology, religion and the arts.
Juvenile holdings also include periodicals, school readers, moveable and toy books; films,
audio-visual and electronic materials, maps, and comic books. In book or other formats they
are dispersed throughout the Library from the General Collection to the various custodial
divisions.
In addition to American and British imprints, the collection includes many foreign-language
childrens books acquired by gifts, purchase or deposit.
Unparalleled secondary research materials relating to childrens literature include monographs,
bibliographies, reference guides, review media, professional journals, and catalogs in English
and other languages.

II. Research Strengths

Due to the inestimably large dispersal of juvenile among adult books, the size of the collection
cannot be determined, however, it is estimated to be around 500,000 books, including 17,000
20,000 American juvenile titles housed in the stacks of the Rare Book and Special Collections
Division.
The Library's holdings of children's materials cover the mainstream as well as the special,
unique, and rare. The strength of the Library's holdings, as compared to all other childrens
literature collections in the United States, if not in the world, lies in their impressive scope and
comprehensiveness, consistency over time, and their supportive secondary materials.
The Librarys juvenile collections afford a broad view of American attitudes toward the family,
the governance of young citizens, popular and traditional culture. In addition, childrens book
illustrations are an inexhaustible resource for information about American childhood including
school and home life, games, toys, and childrens clothing.
The foreign-language materials further enhance the study of the United States and other
national and regional cultures, to a degree not possible anywhere else in the country.
Facility of access to these materials and their systematic acquisition and processing must be
considered another great strength when measured against other special collections in this
country and abroad. Children's books in the Library of Congress are acquired, cataloged,
preserved, microfilmed, digitized, and are accessible through the same bibliographic controls
as all other Library of Congress materials. With the initiation, in the 1960s, of the Annotated
Card program, bibliographic access to children's books was further strengthened.

a) Rare Books
The Librarys rare childrens book collection was created by Valta Parma who was appointed
the first curator of rare books in 1927. Parma selected about 7000 childrens books primarily
from the early 1700s to 1850 - which became the nucleus of the rare childrens book collection.
In the nineteen seventies, further juvenile titles were transferred from the General to the Rare
Book collection by William Matheson, then chief of the Rare Book Division. (The earliest
American juvenile, Parma found was Cotton Mathers A Family Well Ordered (Boston: Printed
by B. Green & J. Allen, 1699).
Gradually the collection began to grow, especially through gifts which included, in the nineteen
thirties, a number of important books given by several donors, J. K. Lilly, Maude Blair, and John
Davis Batchelder among them.
In 1940, Frank J. Hogan presented the Library with a number of fine items including three

American hornbooks, ten New England primers; three known copies of Goodrichs The Tales of
Peter Parley About America (Boston: S.G. Goodrich, 1827); and the rare 1775 Providence
edition of The England Primer Improved (Providence: J. Waterman, 1775). The collection also
contains two copies of Cock Robins Death and Funeral, both printed in Boston, one about 1780
(Boston: Bible & Hearth, [1780], the other, believed to be unique, in 1790.
Other noteworthy collections given which included juvenile items are the Jean Hersholt
Collection of Anderseniana said to be the most complete Andersen collection outside of
Denmark which contains original manuscripts, letters, first editions, presentation copies, and
related materials; the Kiplingiana collection one of the finest in the country - which includes
manuscripts of Kiplings stories and poems, original letters, pen-and-ink sketches and other
items; the Lessing Rosenwald collection which contains a number of incunabula fables (not
classified as juvenile); and the Marian S. Carson Collection (acquired in 1996), which includes
treasures such as The Royal Primer, or, an easy and pleasant Guide to the Art of Reading
(Philadelphia: John Dunlap, 1770), a British primer reprinted in the colonies by John Dunlap,
who printed the Declaration of Independence from Thomas Jefferson's handwritten copy, in
Philadelphia in 1776; and Mansion of Happiness (Salem: W. & S.B. Ives, 1843), the first board
game published in the United States (one of many games and toys in the collection).
In the early nineteen seventies, noted collector d'Alte Welch, in his A Bibliography of American
Children's Books Printed Prior to 1821 (American Antiquarian Society, 1972), appraised the
Librarys holding of rare childrens books as second only to the holdings of the American
Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Among the holdings of the approximately 100 extremely rare children's books, are The
Children's Bible (Philadelphia: A. Stuart, 1763); The Child's New Play-Thing (Philadelphia: W.
Dunlap, 1763); and four editions of The History of the Holy Jesus and The Mothers Gift
(Philadelphia: W. Spotswood, 1791). Other rarities are James Janeway's A Token for Children
(Boston: T. Hancock, 1728); A little Pretty Pocket-Book, Intended for the Instruction and
Amusement of Little Master Tommy, and Pretty Miss Polly (Worcester: I. Thomas, 1787); the
first Worcester edition of The History of Little, Goody Two Shoes (Worcester: I. Thomas, 1787);
Easy and Instructive Lessons for Children. Also, the Ladder to Learning; or, a Selection of
Fables, consisting of words of only one Syllable(Boston, 1804).
Other highlights which give an indication of the remarkable variety and historical
representation of the rare childrens book collection, range from colonial (A Course of Sermons
on Early Piety (Boston: S. Kneeland, 1721) to revolutionary days (Curious hieroglyphick Bible
for the amusement of youth (Worcester: I. Thomas, 1788); from the Civil War (The
Myriopticon: A Historical Panorama of the Rebellion (Springfield: Milton Bradley, 1890) to great
Depression (Pop-UP Mother Goose (New York: Blue Ribbon, 1933).
Books include the didactic and whimsical and range from a paper doll book (The History of
Little Fanny (London: S. and J. Fuller, 1811) to an elegant lift-the-flap book (A Suit of Armor
for Youth (London: R. Ackermann, 1821); from a late 18th century silver hornbook to a
collection of childrens books - poignantly inscribed to their children by Nikolay Alexandrovich
Romanov - the last Tsar of Russia.

b) The General and Custodial Collections

The Librarys General Collection contains thousands of early and rare childrens books not
available anywhere else. Noteworthy is also the great wealth of 19th century periodicals notably broad in the great post-Civil War era - including Young Men of America, The Youths
Companion and St. Nicholas; and an outstanding collection of McGuffy Readers, including
primers and spellers.
The Librarys collections of foreign childrens books include rare items such as the Bibliothque
des Enfants (London: John Marshall, circa 1800) a boxed, sixteenvolume instructional set for
English children, learning French; a collection of rare Chinese childrens books; the Oleg
Pavlovich Grushnikov Collection of some 10,000 Soviet and Russian illustrated childrens books;
a unique collection of Japanese children's books from the World War II era, many issued during
the Allied Occupation.
c) Foreign Publications
The Library annually acquires a representative sample from each country of the most
noteworthy new titles of literature for children of all ages, including books that win national
awards, works that reflect current publishing trends, highlight the diversity of design and
illustrations; reveal new interpretations of social and political themes. Foreign textbooks are
collected when they demonstrate propagandistic teaching methods or if no other childrens
books are published in the country.
The Library acquires reprints or translations from English only if they are textually or
artistically important.
d) Childrens Literature in other Formats
As with other juvenile items, childrens books or items related to childrens books are
scattered throughout the Librarys holdings. Examples of original art about or relating to
childrens books held by the Librarys Prints and Photograph Division - include Palmer Cox,
Paul Goble, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Howard Pyle, Lynd Ward and others. Especially
noteworthy are the original drawings for the 1916 edition of Charles Kingsleys classic The
Water Babies illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith. Other artists included are Peggy Bacon, Fritz
Eichenberg, Antonio Frasconi, and others.
The Manuscript Divisions holdings relating to childrens literature contain, among others,
letters and papers of such authors and illustrators as Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Louisa May Alcott,
Ludwig Bemelmans, John Ciardi, Samuel Clemens, Virginia Hamilton, Joel Chandler Harris, Kirk
Munroe, and Frank Stockton. Other correspondence of significance appears in the Librarys
holdings of Presidential Papers. Here, for example, the Theodore Roosevelt Papers contain
correspondence with such notable authors as Kenneth Grahame, Ernest Thompson Seton, and
Rudyard Kipling. Other items of interest to the historian include the manuscript journal of a

young boy growing up in Washington, D.C. in the mid-19th century (Published as Growing Up on
Capitol Hill. A Young Washingtonians Journal, 1850-1852. Edited by John J. McDonough.
Library of Congress, 1997) and The Journals of William Speiden, 1852-1855 which includes an
illustrated notebook of the young Speiden who accompanied his father on Commodore Perrys
voyage to Japan.
Materials relating to the study of childrens literature can be found in many other divisions
including the American Folk Life Center (e.g. the Archive of Folk Song); the
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (childrens books and
magazines in a number of formats including audio Braille and digital Braille); the Motion
Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (children's films, filmstrips, TV/radio
programs and other audio-visual materials); and the Serial and Government Publications
Division (Comic Book collection). Other divisions holding material relating to childrens
literature are the Hispanic Division; Geography and Map Division; and the Music Division.

e) Electronic Resources
A collection of rare illustrated nineteenth and early 20th century childrens books in full text
have been digitized and are available on the web site of the Rare Book and Special Collections
Division, including the first American edition of Little Pretty Pocket Book (Worcester, 1787).
Over two hundred subscription databases are available on-site to assist the childrens literature
researcher, including Book Review Digest, LitFinder (full-text access to childrens literature);
Music Online: American Song; Poem Finder, Biography and Genealogy Master Index, Worldcat,
Librarians Internet Index: Websites You Can Trust, and others.

III. Collecting Policy

The Library of Congress adds all American imprints, regardless of format, deposited for
copyright, with the exceptions noted below.
religious materials for students in vacation church schools, instructions in devotions,

catechisms and question books, and textbooks in religion unless written by a well-

known author or issued by an important trade publisher;

elementary and secondary textbooks except for important titles in American history,

social and physical sciences, and other subjects in special reader demand, or if they

demonstrate new teaching methods of approaches;

answer books, workbooks, tests, teachers manuals; correspondence school lessons,

syllabi and textbooks issued for use by a particular teachers class;

coloring books, paper dolls.

IV. Acquisition Sources: Current and Future

The mandatory copyright deposits form the basis for the Librarys American childrens book

collection. Other methods of acquisition are exchange, gift, and purchase.

Identifying, evaluating and acquiring subscription electronic databases related to the study of

childrens literature will be an integral part of collection development.

V. Collecting Levels
Due to the large dispersal of juvenile among adult books, the Library collects American
childrens books on collecting Level 5 in a wide range of subjects, ranging in the Library of
Congress Classification Schedules from A (e.g. AP: Juvenile periodicals), to P (e.g. PZ: Fiction
and juvenile belles-lettres) to Z (e.g. Z 719-876: Libraries).
Excepted from this are PZ 5-90, Juvenile belles-lettres in foreign languages, which are
collected on level 3.
Revised November 2008