Curious George Comes Home

On June 10, the Curious George Collection, arrived back in Hattiesburg to its home at The University of Southern Mississippi’s de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection, after a two-year journey around Japan. On June 11, the process of opening the crates and examining the collection will begin. 

 

In August of 2017, the collection, which includes original illustrations and manuscripts by creators H.A and Margret Rey, debuted at the first exhibit site in Tokyo. Over the two-year period, the exhibit traveled to six different cities, covering every geographic area in Japan and welcomed over 149,000 visitors. 

 

NHK, Japan’s public television entity, airs the “Curious George” program throughout the country, and they came to the Collection in 2016 with the request to launch a traveling exhibition featuring Curious George. After initial conversations, NHK began traveling to Hattiesburg to research the project. 

 

The final visit took place in May of 2017, and included representatives from the shipping company in Atlanta, who would be responsible for transporting the materials to and from Japan. Each and every item was carefully measured and weighed and shipped in the custom-made cases.

 

The de Grummond Collection holds the literary estate of H.A. and Margret Rey, curators of Curious George. The collection will now be stored in de Grummond until it’s time for the next adventure.