#englit1635

Special Collections recently welcomed Courtney Weikle-Mills’ ENGLIT 1635: Children in Pittsburgh. Students had an opportunity to learn about collections that focus on contemporary Pittsburgh cultural organizations and Pittsburgh-based authors.  Curators and Librarians highlighted the Fred E. and Harriet R. Curtis Theatre Collection, the Nietz Old Textbook Collection, and the Elizabeth Nesbitt Children’s Literature Collection and students were asked to submit a Tumblr post about the materials.

If you grew up anywhere between the 1970s and 1990s, odds are you probably have seen Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Filmed in and featuring Pittsburgh often, the show and its host Fred Rogers have a special place in the collective hearts of Pittsburghers. Saved in the University of Pittsburgh’s Special Collections, the interactive book­­­ The Neighborhood of Make-Believe Playtime Puppet Theater (1974) features the kind of imagination that the show encouraged in its child viewers. 

The book features paper puppets of many of the recognizable characters from the TV series, ­­­like King Friday XIII and Henrietta Pussycat, which children are able to punch out and play with. The book also gives much larger paper replicas of the familiar sets from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe so the characters are able to play in their familiar habitat. The inside of the book gives instructions on how cut and press out the characters, and how to prop open the sets for kids to play in their “own ‘Neighborhood of Make-Believe.’” With it’s bright blue castle of King Friday’s, or Daniel Tiger’s clock, the Playtime Puppet Theater book brings the magic of Mister Rogers’ show into the homes of the children who would have bought this, and encouraged them to play and act out imaginative scenarios with these familiar characters. Mister Rogers was able to bring the Neighborhood of Pittsburgh into the homes of children across the nation, and then through this interact book, was able to bring the sort of imagination and play that occurs in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Special Collections recently welcomed Courtney Weikle-Mills’ ENGLIT 1635: Children in Pittsburgh. Students had an opportunity to learn about collections that focus on contemporary Pittsburgh cultural organizations and Pittsburgh-based authors.  Curators and Librarians highlighted the Fred E. and Harriet R. Curtis Theatre Collection, the Nietz Old Textbook Collection, and the Elizabeth Nesbitt Children’s Literature Collection and students were asked to submit a Tumblr post about the materials.

Everyone’s heard of Charlotte’s Web—that classic children’s tale about a little girl and her pig named Wilbur and a very clever spider. It has become so entrenched in our culture, adapted into movies and plays, that most of us take it for granted. Maybe that’s why my eye stopped on the Special Collections copy of Charlotte’s Web—it was something familiar, seen in a new way. Instead of a tattered elementary school classroom copy of E.B. White’s novel, I held in my hands a 1952 edition, and I could see the novel through the eyes of a little girl in the Carnegie Library, picking up this new story of love and friendship for the first time. 

Of course, no copy of Charlotte’s Web could be complete without the 47 drawings by Garth Williams, with “all the wonderful detail and warm-hearted appeal that children love.” With a book so rich with beautiful illustrations it’s easy to see why even the youngest of children were drawn to this book. At a time when literature for families and children was becoming a mainstay in Pittsburgh culture, this archived book gleans light on why Charlotte’s Web was such a popular read, and why it continues to be part of the culture today.