Scope and Contents
The collection consists of original artwork, writings, dummies, proofs, photographs, notebooks and sketchbooks, publishing correspondence and contracts, printed materials, memorabilia, and computer and audiovisual media documenting the career of children’s book author Thacher Hurd.
Included are illustrations and manuscripts for Mama Don’t Allow, Art Dog, Zoom City, and Moo Cow Kaboom!, as well as unpublished works by Hurd and books he illustrated for other authors. The collection also contains photographs and artwork for projects unrelated to his children’s books, files related to Peaceable Kingdom Press, and a small amount of personal papers, which include early drawings and paintings by Hurd and artwork he created in college. Among the correspondents are Clement Hurd, Edith Thacher Hurd, Olivia Scott Hurd, James Marshall, Clyde Robert Bulla, Helen Frost, and Susan Terris, in addition to his literary agency Curtis Brown Ltd., and editors and executives from Harper & Row, Crown Publishers, and Henry Holt and Co.
Included are illustrations and manuscripts for Mama Don’t Allow, Art Dog, Zoom City, and Moo Cow Kaboom!, as well as unpublished works by Hurd and books he illustrated for other authors. The collection also contains photographs and artwork for projects unrelated to his children’s books, files related to Peaceable Kingdom Press, and a small amount of personal papers, which include early drawings and paintings by Hurd and artwork he created in college. Among the correspondents are Clement Hurd, Edith Thacher Hurd, Olivia Scott Hurd, James Marshall, Clyde Robert Bulla, Helen Frost, and Susan Terris, in addition to his literary agency Curtis Brown Ltd., and editors and executives from Harper & Row, Crown Publishers, and Henry Holt and Co.
Dates
- 1949 - 2017
Creator
- Hurd, Thacher (Author)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Box 40 (computer media): Restricted fragile material. Access copies of digital files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Box 41 (audiovisual materials): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Box 40 (computer media): Restricted fragile material. Access copies of digital files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Box 41 (audiovisual materials): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Conditions Governing Use
The Thatcher Hurd Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller on the Jockey Hollow Fund and the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2019.
Arrangement
Organized into seven series: I. Children’s Books, 1950-2017. II. Photographs, Artwork, and Printed Materials, 1972-2017, undated. III. Correspondence, 1968-2016, undated. IV. Journals and Notebooks, 1976-2014, undated. V. Peaceable Kingdom Press, 1983-2002. VI. Personal Papers, 1949-2003. VII. Computer and Audiovisual Media, 1993-2004, undated.
Extent
50.93 Linear Feet ((41 boxes) + 1 art, 1 broadside)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
The collection consists of original artwork, writings, dummies, proofs, photographs, notebooks and sketchbooks, publishing correspondence and contracts, printed materials, memorabilia, and computer and audiovisual media documenting the career of children’s book author Thacher Hurd.
Thacher Hurd (1949-)
Thacher Hurd, son of children’s book creators Clement Hurd and Edith Thacher Hurd, is the author and illustrator of more than 25 books for children, including Mystery on the Docks (1983), Mama Don’t Allow (1984), Pea Patch Jig (1986), Art Dog (1996), Zoom City (1998), Moo Cow Kaboom! (2003), and Bongo Fishing (2011). Hurd was born in 1949 in Burlington, Vermont and graduated from the California College of Arts and Crafts. He published his first book, The Old Chair, in 1978. His works have been adapted into spoken books, a musical, and an opera. Mama Don’t Allow won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award and was named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Best Children’s Books of all Time.” In 1983 Thacher and his wife Olivia Scott Hurd founded Peaceable Kingdom Press, a publisher of cards and posters adapted from children’s books. Thacher and Olivia Hurd live in Berkeley, California, and have two children, Manton and Nicholas.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Folder titles in brackets were supplied by staff during processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Folder titles in brackets were supplied by staff during processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Artwork
- Audiovisual materials
- Authors -- United States -- 21st century
- Born digital
- Bulla, Clyde Robert
- Children's literature -- Illustrations
- Children's literature, American -- 21st century
- Crown Group
- Curtis Brown Ltd
- Dummies (Printed matter)
- Etching plates
- Etchings (prints)
- Frost, Helen, 1949-
- Gouaches (paintings)
- Harper & Row, Publishers
- Hurd, Clement, 1908-1988
- Hurd, Edith Thacher, 1910-1997
- Hurd, Olivia, 1946-
- Hurd, Thacher
- Illustrators -- United States -- 21st century
- Illustrators -- United States -- Archives
- Mechanical toys
- Negatives (photographic)
- Peaceable Kingdom Press
- Photographs
- Picture books for children -- United States
- Posters
- Proofs (printed matter)
- Sketchbooks
- Terris, Susan
- Watercolors (paintings)
Creator
- Hurd, Thacher (Author)
- Title
- Guide to the Thacher Hurd Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- by Brooke McManus
- Date
- July 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.