The May Massee Collection has found new life at Emporia State University.
Massee became head of Doubleday publishing company’s first juvenile department in 1922, and later started the first juvenile department at Viking Press. The collection of her work was donated to ESU in 1972. The Massee Memorial Committee chose ESU, then Kansas State Teachers College, because of the school’s commitment to teachers’ and librarians’ training, and because the school administers the William Allen White Children’s Book Award, which was the first state-wide children’s choice book award program.
Fans of Massee last year began an effort to bring attention to the collection, and since have moved it to a new location within the William Allen White Library.
This month, they expanded the collection to include the complete body of work on book illustrations by the late author and illustrator artist Robert McCloskey.
McCloskey wrote and illustrated eight books, including the well-known “Make Way for Ducklings,” the 1942 Caldecott Medal winner. His second Caldecott came in 1958 for “Time of Wonder,” and he received Caldecott Honors for three other stories, including “Blueberries for Sal.”
“Sal,” McCloskey’s daughter, spoke on Wednesday to a small crowd of booklovers at the Sauder Alumni Center. Nancy Schon, renown Boston-based sculptor who created the bronze ducklings sculpture in the Boston Public Garden, also was in Emporia in conjunction with the event, as was Gary Schmidt, Newbery Honor and Printz award-winning children’s book author and English professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.
ESU President Mike Lane introduced McCloskey on Wednesday.
“It was her father’s wish before he died that she learn about the May Massee Collection, and she has come here to do that,” Lane said.
Using a slide presentation, McCloskey gave the audience a glimpse of the family’s life on Deer Isle, Maine, and on their private island in East Penobscot Bay, where they spent the majority of their time and where McCloskey drew inspiration for his books and illustrations.
The time spent going over the Massee materials was one of the most touching experiences of her life, McCloskey said.
She talked about the close relationship shared by Massee and the McCloskey family, and the deep feelings elicited when she saw that Massee’s own study, including hand-crafted wood-paneled walls and an ornate desk, had been brought to ESU and reconstructed for display.
“Mae Massee was core to my being, and a model for … what being a professional woman is all about,” she said.
“I realized last night that I can’t tell you what it was like for me to walk into her office and be back in a place where I visited with my Dad.”
McCloskey recalled living in Massee’s house for a time, surrounded by antiques and art and sleeping in Massee’s own bedroom, with its Wedgwood-blue and cream wallpaper.
“She understood children and it shows in her work,” McCloskey said. “You have the most marvelous collection … and I urge you to preserve it.”
It was Massee who set the young McCloskey on the path to success in children’s books, after he showed her his “sturm and drang” portfolio works.
“She basically rearranged him and sent him off on a mission,” McCloskey said.
Robert McCloskey, whom Sal called “Bob,” worked in a boat house on the shore of the private island where the family spent most of its time.
His daughter showed a series of slides of photographs and her father’s drawings of their home, where Sal McCloskey and her husband and two sons now live.
“This is the house you see in ‘Time of Wonder’ and ‘One Morning in Maine,’” she said, as a slide showed a path leading through the woods to a large two-story home.
McCloskey used his home environment and the family’s every-day life to create appealing books for children; often he used Sal as a featured character in his books.
Many of his illustrations are prototypes for those used in the books, and many are drawings he made for his own enjoyment.
“You’re seeing stuff that people have not seen,” McCloskey said. “They’ve not been shown.”
Now, his work will be on display in the May Massee Collection room.
A bibliography is available for researchers, according to Heather Wade, assistant professor and university archivist. The bibliography includes essays about Massee, her career, and the May Massee Memorial Collection at ESU.
Artwork by Ludwig Bemelmans, Eyvind Earle, Maud and Miska Petersham, Robert Lawson and Kate Seredy also are housed in the Emporia collection.
The permanent gallery space in the William Allen White Library will feature rotating exhibits of the art in the collection.
The collection is open to the public Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment.
Anyone interested in viewing it may come to Room 119 in the library, or call University Archives personnel at 341-6431, Wade said.