About the Exhibit

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Ariane Dewey explains preseparated art to the author during a visit to the Children's Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota

Exhibit designer, Paul Mostrom:

Paul Mostrom is an archivist from the Twin Cities. He completed a practicum at the Children's Literature Research Collections while finishing his Master in Library and Information Science degree at St. Catherine University. After graduating he continued to work in the collection, processing and accessioning the papers of Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey, a pair of collections that contains over 5,000 pieces of artwork and production material spanning 70 publications and 35 years. He also helped host Ms. Dewey, Ava Weiss, and Paul Zelinsky when they visited the collection to discuss preseparated art.

Curator, Lisa Von Drasek:

Lisa Von Drasek is the Curator of the Children's Literature Research Collections. The CLRC, an internationally recognized resource in the field of children's literature, contain six core collections including the Kerlan collection as well as several smaller collections. Lisa previously was the Children's Librarian of the Bank Street College of Education. She was the teacher/librarian for pre-k through 8th grade as well as a teacher of Children's Literature, Storytelling, and Children's Book Publishing 101. Lisa reviews children's books for The New York Times, Shelf Awareness and blogs at EarlyWord: The Librarian/Publisher Connection. She has served as a juror on The New York Times Best Illustrated, the Newbery Committee, The Ezra Jack Keats Award, Trudi Birger Prize (Jerusalem Book Fair) National Book Awards for Young People's Literature and American Library Association's Notable Children's Books.

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Page from Ariane Dewey's notebooks

About the Children's Literature Research Collections:

The Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota is one of the world's great children's literature research collections. The Collection includes books, original manuscripts and illustrations, and many related materials. The materials in the Collection are studied by teachers, librarians, students, authors, illustrators, translators, and critics who come from Minnesota and other states as well as from many foreign countries. In addition to securing and preserving materials and maintaining a research collection for scholarly use, the Kerlan Collection sponsors lectures and programs. It also mounts exhibits locally and loans materials for exhibits nationally and internationally. 

The Kerlan Collection was established in the 1940s by University of Minnesota alumnus Dr. Irvin Kerlan (1912-1963). He collected rare books as a hobby and soon turned to children's books. Dr. Kerlan chose what was best and representative of each current year and, when he could afford it, bought children's classics and past Newbery winners. It was not long before he took his collection one step further, pursuing the background material that went into making the books. He wrote letters to authors and illustrators, and they replied by forwarding their original manuscripts, artwork, and selected correspondence with editors and children.

From his collection, Dr. Kerlan organized exhibitions and shipped them to libraries and art galleries in North America, Europe, and the Far East. In 1949, he made arrangements with the University of Minnesota, his Alma Mater, to provide a permanent home for his collection. 

Support the Kerlan Collection by becoming a donor and help keep Dr. Kerlan's collection growing. Join or find out more about the Kerlan Friends here.

About the Exhibit