The de Grummond Collection Presents Exhibit Featuring Keats, Minor and Sweet
News item published on: 2017-05-19 15:12:20The de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection is currently exhibiting works by contemporary artists/illustrators Melissa Sweet and Wendell Minor. The exhibit, Gems from de Grummond: The Works of Wendell Minor and Melissa Sweet, will be available through March 2018 in the de Grummond Exhibit Room in Cook Library.
Visitors to the exhibit will see Minor’s illustrations for Robert Burleigh’s Trapped!: A Whale’s Rescue and Ouida Sebestyen’s Words By Heart, and Sweet’s art from Jacqueline Davies’ book, The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon. Both Minor and Sweet are recent donors to the de Grummond Collection.
In addition to these selections, the original collage illustrations for Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats, which is celebrating its 50th year of publication, are on display. The de Grummond Collection is the sole repository for the works of Ezra Jack Keats and is the home of the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award, presented annually at the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival.
Also included in the exhibit is a sampling of the de Grummond’s collection of Little Golden Books. Created in 1942, Little Golden Books met a need for economical and easy to find books for children. The Poky Little Puppy, the most popular Little Golden Book, was one of the first 12 titles to be published for 25 cents in 1942. On display are the original twelve titles, published with a blue spine, along with some of the most popular and unique Little Golden Books published over the past 75 years. Included are early works by Margaret Wise Brown, Richard Scarry, Eloise Wilkin, and Garth Williams.
The de Grummond Exhibit Room is located on the second floor of Cook Library and is open by appointment only during the summer semester. To visit the exhibit, call 601-266-4349. During the fall and spring semesters, the exhibit will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the exhibit, contact Ellen Ruffin at or 601.266.6543.