HISTORY OF THE 
DEGRUMMOND COLLECTION

by Dee Jones, Curator Emeritus

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When Lena de Grummond came to The University of Southern Mississippi to teach children's literature in the School of Library Science in 1966, she envisioned resources that went beyond the classroom textbook. If students could study the creative processes of authors and illustrators by examining the manuscripts and illustrations first hand, she knew they would better appreciate the literature. To accomplish this goal, de Grummond wrote to her favorite creators of children's books and solicited contributions of original manuscripts and typescripts, illustrations, sketchbooks, galleys, dummies, publisher correspondence, and fan mail--any materials related to the publication of a children's book.

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Her first response came from the Haders, Berta and Elmer, the husband and wife author-illustrator team, who sent manuscript materials, dummies and illustrations for Ding, Dong, Bell (1957). These contributions from the Haders were soon followed by others from Lois Lenski, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Roger Duvoisin. Today the Collection houses works by more than 1300 authors and illustrators. These original materials are supplemented by a book collection of more than 180,000 volumes of historical and contemporary children's literature dating from 1530. These include fables,fairy tales, folklore, alphabet books, nursery rhymes, textbooks, religious books, moral tales, fantasy, fiction, primers, and children's magazines. Complementing these holdings are scholarly studies, biographies, bibliographies, and critical works.

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