Classic Illustrations for Travelers: Picture Books Fuel Dreams

Classic Illustrations for Travelers:

Original Pooh and friends at New York Public Library

Childhood Books Fuel Travel Dreams

For in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be.
~ John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things

After a recent pilgrimage to see Christopher Milne’s original stuffed Pooh Bear, Piglet, Kanga and Eeyore at the New York Public Library, I started thinking about classic books I still own from my childhood. My parents and grandparents handed down many of these artfully illustrated treasures. For years, I also received large picture books of fairy and folk tales for every birthday. Along with my parents’ complete set of the World Book Encyclopedia (which took up the entire bottom shelf of one six-foot-long bookcase), these classics inspired me to explore the world, both imagined and real. Patched with yellowing library tape, many have been loved to tatters over the years. To preserve them, I keep them in a dark cupboard and handle them as little as possible. Here are a few illustrations and quotes from my collection that pinpoint the origins of many of my adult interests and travel passions.

Paleontology, Natural history, Evolution and Geologic Time

Archeoptryx Illustration by Hermann Post, c. 1930.

A is for Archaeop’teryx,

Of whom perhaps you’ve heard,

The up-and-coming reptile

Who first became a bird.

Historical Accounts, Locations and Artifacts of Exploration

Illustration for America Begins, c 1938, Alice Dalgliesh & Lois Maloy

This story…tells how people from Europe sailed across the ocean and found a new land.

Wordplay, Poetry, Nonsense and Humor

Far and few, far and few,

Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,

And they went to sea in a Sieve.

From The Jumblies in The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear, Holbrook Jackson, ed., c 1951, Dover Publications, Inc.

Norse Mythology, Winter Adventures, Vikings, Norway and Other Northern Lands

Illustration from Ola, copyright Ingri & Parin D'Aulaire, 1932

Far up in the north the sun is afraid to show his pale face in winter. But the moon and the stars love the sparkling frost.

Lush, Moody Seascapes in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the U.S.

Take a farewell look at the waves and sky. Take a farewell sniff of the salty sea. A little bit sad about the place you are leaving; a little bit glad about the place you are going. It is a time of quiet wonder–for wondering, for instance: Where do hummingbirds go in a hurricane?

Maps and Memorable Characters (like Eeoyre, Quoted Below)

E. H. Shepard illustration for House at Pooh Corner

Everybody crowds round so in this Forest. There’s no Space. I never saw a more Spreading lot of animals in my life, and in all the wrong places.

Bookstores, Libraries and Special Collections Around the World

If you can find any of these books (some of which date from my mother’s childhood and are no longer in print) at a local library, I recommend you not settle for excerpts. Spend some time reading them and feeding your dreams with the lavish pictures and stories that can only be found in children’s books from the eras when publishers were not so cost- and market-driven. If you can’t find physical copies, you might be able to browse archives at various libraries online. For more about A.A. Milne, read The Enchanted Places: A Memoir of the Real Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh.