Editor’s Introduction Louisa Smith Anyone conducting research in children’s literature knows the value of special collections. Most of these collections bear the names of their originators—Baldwin, Kerlan, de Grummond, Rosenbach, Renier, Porter, Opie, Osborne, Cotsen. These are people who, for the most part, had the insight to acquire materials that others considered insignificant and then locate libraries and institutions that were willing to take their collections and make them available for scholars’ use. My introduction to special collections was the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota when I was encouraged by two history professors who saw the value of untapped materials in the collection. It was like walking into Aladdin’s cave. Besides the books, I found manuscripts and rough drafts, original artwork, illustrators’ dummies, letters, photographs. The inception of an addiction. The world of bibliomania opened. Over the years it has only gotten worse—or better—depending on one’s perspective. In addition to my research that has taken me to Canada, Britain, and collections in the United States, I am also driven by the thrill of seeing original work such as the Ezra Jack Keats illustrations at the de Grummond Collection in Mississippi. Printing hardly does his work justice. I offer this special issue as a tribute to those individual people whose persistence and perseverance have given us those jewels, those collections. For many it involved a lifetime’s work haunting bookstores, searching flea markets, writing to authors and illustrators, and committing resources, both financial and personal. With this issue, we only scratch the surface. One has only to examine Dolores Blythe Jones’s helpful book, Special Collections in Children’s Literature: An International Directory, published by the American Library Association in 1995, to see the proliferation of collections. As researchers know, half the battle is fought just discovering the location of materials—often an artist’s work is found in several locations. In the case of someone such as Lois Lenski, this is intentional; she wanted her materials readily available for teachers to use with their students. In this issue curators and researchers open the doors to show us the person behind the collection. George Bodmer introduces us to one of the first collectors of children’s books, A. S. W. Rosenbach, whose Early American Children’s Books, published in 1933, is still the reference used [End Page v] to cite early children’s books. Rita Smith, curator of the Baldwin Collection in Florida, gives us a personal memory of that indefatigable collector, Ruth Baldwin. Interestingly, both Baldwin and Lena de Grummond were faculty members at Louisiana State University. The de Grummond collection is presented by Anne Lundin, former assistant curator of the collection, who is now at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Karen Hoyle and Tessa Chester, whose names are practically synonymous with their respective collections, the Kerlan and the Renier, discuss Dr. Irving Kerlan and Ferdnand and Anne Renier. The Lenski Collection at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, differs from her other collections by being composed primarily of American children’s chapbooks that Lenski acquired prior to her work on historical children’s figures. Emilie Mills, retired special collection librarian, gives us insight into Lenski’s collection. Clare Bradford and Alida Allison demonstrate how a scholar could use special collections: Bradford at the Pound Collection in the State Library of Victoria, Australia, and Allison at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin. Finally, Martha Rasmussen, who for ten years has published Martha’s Kidlit Newsletter, a newsletter for collectors of children’s books, provides us with background on her work with collectors of today who may be the names on collections of the future. Throughout the curators’ articles, the reader will note several reoccurring themes: no collection is blessed with an overabundance of staff, so researchers will need to be patient in seeking materials. Cataloging is time-consuming and with the electronic means now available, transferring and entering materials is ongoing but will make collections more accessible. Finally, storage and maintenance take funds, so support is welcome. With the escalation of prices for first edition books and original illustration, materials are beyond the resources of...