If you have a small child in your life, you likely know “Goodnight Moon” by heart: “In the great green room there was a telephone. And a red balloon. And a picture of the cow jumping over the moon…”
Frank Phillips’s bed at the Phillips Home in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, November 29, 2020. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.65305
Trademark registration by Farmers Feed Company of New Jersey for [Cow and Crescent Moon Logo] brand Dried Brewers’ Grains. March 25, 1902. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/trmk.1t37975As I (happily) read Margaret Wise Brown’s soothing bedtime story to my daughter for the fourteen millionth time, I started thinking about the visual nature of the book as a playful framework for exploring our collection.
Drawing inspiration from Clement Hurd’s dreamlike illustrations of the contents of a sleepy bunny’s bedroom, I turned to the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. We now say goodnight to two little kittens and a pair of mittens:
Two jolly kittens at a feast. Lithograph by Thomas Kelly, 1874. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.11340Trademark registration by Star Knitting Company for Seamless Gusset Mitten brand Knit Mittens. December 8, 1896. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/trmk.1t29253
Some clocks and socks:
Trademark registration by E. Ingraham & Co. for [Multiple] brand Clocks. December 12, 1871. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/trmk.1t00577Legs and feet of five teenage girls wearing dog collar anklets on their socks. New York World-Telegram photo by Roger Higgins, 1953. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c25447
A little toy house and a young mouse:
Kindergarten children in Horace Mann School working on doll houses. See Bliss report. Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma. Photo by Lewis W. Hine, March 1917. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/nclc.052381. Jumping mouse. 2. White footed mouse. 3. Meadow mouse. 4. Brown rat. Lithograph copyrighted by L. Prang & Co., 1874. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.12053
Stars and air:
Astronomical maps, no. 16, clusters of stars, primary systems and nebulae. Engraving, 1847. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.44239Equivalent. Set P, print 6. Photo by Alfred Stieglitz, 1929. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ds.00892
Watch Mac Barnett, the 2025-26 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, discuss Goodnight Moon at the 2022 National Book Festival.
Revisit this blog post celebrating images of people enjoying a good book.
Comments
Cheryl Davis says:
Your creative post sparked lots of conversation in our Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Teachers Network! Teachers have several ideas on how your blog post can inspire some fun research through the Library of Congress collections. We all love remembering and re-reading our favorite childhood books. It would be fun to match up primary source photos with the narrative.
I’m wondering how I well I might do finding images for Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” or Richard Scarry’s “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go” (both books I’ve read out loud hundreds of times!) It will be a fun challenge to try. Thanks for the wonderful educational idea for search practice and analysis.
Comments
Your creative post sparked lots of conversation in our Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Teachers Network! Teachers have several ideas on how your blog post can inspire some fun research through the Library of Congress collections. We all love remembering and re-reading our favorite childhood books. It would be fun to match up primary source photos with the narrative.
I’m wondering how I well I might do finding images for Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” or Richard Scarry’s “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go” (both books I’ve read out loud hundreds of times!) It will be a fun challenge to try. Thanks for the wonderful educational idea for search practice and analysis.