Last year (2019) was the centennial celebration of Children’s Book Week (CBW) and the issuance of the first Children’s Book Week posters. I purchased my first vintage CBW poster back in the mid-90’s from Caravan Books in Oklahoma City, featuring a remarkable image by Bruno Munari of a tiny girl with a book swinging between the legs of a gigantic pink flamingo. My interest in book-related posters didn’t stop with that single acquisition and additional questions arose: who created these images? how were they distributed? how uncommon were they? were there other organizations that issued similar posters? how did they fit into the history of children’s literature?

At the time, lots of answers to some of these questions were provided by Leonard Marcus’ wonderful book, 75 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters (NY: Knopf, 1994), recently updated to 100 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters (NY: Knopf, 2019). The idea of a Children’s Book Week took shape during the opening decades of the twentieth century, fueled by increased access to public libraries for their youngest patrons and an expanded range of publications for children. Following the conclusion of the First World War, a trio of powerful personalities…known as the “Three M’s”…came together to create Children’s Book Week. Two of the most active participants were Anne Carroll Moore, the head of the NY Public Library’s Children’s Department and Frederic G. Melcher, the editor of Publishers’ Weekly. A third…and somewhat unlikely…contributor was Franklin K. Mathiews, the staff librarian of the Boy Scouts of America. Mathiews’ interest in promoting morally appropriate materials for his boy scouts provided the impetus to work with Melcher and Moore to develop a celebration of uplifting materials for young readers.

The earliest posters promoting the new celebration were developed by noted children’s illustrator Jessie Willcox Smith whose images from 1919 through 1924 illuminated the slogan “More Books in the Home!” Strangely, however, the majority of CBW posters in following years were created by graphic designers rather than children’s illustrators. There were exceptions: N.C. Wyeth provided posters in 1927 and 1928 and Maud and Miska Petersham contributed a notable design in 1931.

It wasn’t until the late 1940’s, following the conclusion of WWII, that the Children’s Book Council (CBC)…formed in 1945 and authorized to administer Children’s Book Week…employed popular children’s artists to design each year’s graphic for poster production. The roll of artists reads like a Who’s Who of a post-War Golden Age of children’s illustration: William Pene du Bois, Marcia Brown, Roger Duvoisin, Garth Williams, Leonard Weisgard, Feodor Rojankovsky, Maurice Sendak, and on and on.

In addition to a large poster, the CBC also commissioned smaller fliers (usually 6 x 22”) by additional illustrators to supplement a themed celebration: “Get Lost in a Book;” “Make Friends with Books;” “One World, Many Stories;” “Books Are Bridges;” and so on. Both the larger posters and smaller fliers were sent to bookstores, libraries and publishers, most often through the mail. Because of their size, they are almost always found folded, the posters in quarters and the fliers in half.

Beyond their immediately appealing graphic design and advocacy of books and reading, what I find most attractive about these and other book-related posters is what they have to say about the relationship between children and books in any particular era as well as how we’ve viewed children themselves and the culture itself during the past century. Take, for example, Marguerite de Angeli’s 1948 poster, “Books Tell the Story.” De Angeli’s sentimental depiction of an older sister protectively reading to a younger brother says tons about a comfortable post-War America. Contrast that with Emily Arnold McCully’s “Book Power” poster of 1969 featuring a raised fist, peace symbol, and protest marchers to see how far we changed in a mere twenty years.

Two additional sources for remarkable illustrated posters are available: those created for the Herald Tribune’s Children’s Spring Book Festival and those made for New York is Book Country.

The Children’s Spring Book Festival was sponsored by the New York Herald Tribune from the late 1930’s through the early 1970’s and posters were commissioned for each year’s celebration by a famous children’s artist. Printed on a heavy-weight paper and distributed throughout a smaller geographic community, these posters were created by an astonishing array of children’s illustrators: Robert McCloskey, Barbara Cooney, Garth Williams, Crockett Johnson, Maurice Sendak, and Gustaf Tenggren among them. Awards were presented in each of three categories: “young children,” “middle-aged children,” and “other children.” During its earlier decades, the awards carried great weight within the publishing and library worlds, rivaling the Newbery and Caldecott awards presented by the American Library Association.

New York is Book Country (NY is BC) was a Manhattan street fair and literary celebration begun in 1979 and abruptly cancelled in 2003, a few years after the attacks of 9/11. Each year, a prominent artist or book illustrator created a poster to mark the event. Oftentimes, the artist was on hand to autograph the poster for attendees. The very first NY is BC featured two posters, one created by Edward Gorey and a second by Maurice Sendak. In subsequent years, only one was issued. Again, the fact that the celebration was NYC-based limited the distribution of these posters and some have become both quite elusive and extraordinarily expensive, especially when signed by the artist. A Keith Haring signed poster is usually offered in the $2,500-$3,000 price range! More affordable and sought-after examples were designed by Hilary Knight, William Joyce, Robert Sabuda, Arnold Lobel, Chris Van Allsburg, Leo & Diane Dillon, and many others.

As with any collectible, condition is paramount in determining pricing. Posters were meant to be hung and tiny pinholes are both abundant in many and easily rectified or overlooked. Chips, however, and especially those that compromise the graphic design, should be avoided. Once purchased, posters can and should be framed to provide for long-term protection as well as display. There’s nothing like a collectible that will verify one’s commitment to reading and children and elicit ooh’s and aah’s from houseguests as well.