Children

Did you know that the original Kermit the Frog was made from ping pong balls, a pair of blue jeans, and an old coat that belonged to Jim Henson’s mother?

One of the Golden Busy People Book series published in 1968 for children, this volume shows what an astronaut experiences in training, testing, and the launch and recovery process. As expected with this type of book, it has been well-used and needs some preservation care. Unlike most Golden Book publications, this book measures 16 inches tall and 6½ inches wide. 

This fanciful work by a popular author of children’s stories, histories, and genealogy is a “Mother Goose” style rhyme and story which was published in 1902. It depicts children and their families being visited by children from the moon and their adventures together. It is amply illustrated, but in need of extensive preservation treatment. It is part of the National Air & Space Museum Library's collection of fiction works that focus on fantasies about life on other worlds.

This is the second of a series of sketches and life histories of birds told in a unique way—by the birds themselves as "autobiographies." This makes it especially interesting to the young readers for whom it was written, but also contributes valuable information for older naturalists. Author Arthur Allen was a professor of ornithology at Cornell University, which is renowned for its Laboratory of Ornithology. The book is illustrated with 240 of Allen's own photographs, and there are eight color plates by George Miksch Sutton. One of Sutton’s images is used for this entry.

From the National Air and Space Museum Library's rare book collection, this 1953 classic is another publication from the Golden Book series on aviation for young readers. It was given to the Smithsonian’s National Air Museum (as it was called then) in 1957 by Paul Garber, the first curator of aeronautics for the Smithsonian. It is filled with aircraft illustrations, flight history, and biographies of well-known aviators of the period. Due to its age and paper quality, it is in need of some preservation treatment.  

One of the titles from the popular Golden Book children’s series, this book covers the space shuttle era and some history of space travel. It includes photographs and illustrations of what space and planetary exploration might be like in the future. Written for “junior space enthusiasts,” it is an example of the breadth of material on aviation and space flight written for a popular audience contained in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Library. 

The muted colors and illustrative style of the Arts & Crafts movement period are featured in this color trade catalog from 1912-13. The company focused on making large wallpaper friezes, and was one of the first companies to develop a washable color wallpaper printed with oils that could be cleaned with a damp cloth or sponge. It was called San-kro-mura, the “sanitary” wall covering. The company produced wallpaper with panoramic views of mountains, deserts, forests, lakes, and scenic narratives of folklore and history.

This is one of over 1,600 titles at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library classified as a pop-up and movable book. Some of these titles have been in the collection since the founding of the Cooper Union Museum in 1897. However, the majority of the pop-up collection was acquired in the 1980s and continues to grow through donations from collectors and select purchases. Spanning over 500 years, these action-packed works of art were intended to calculate, educate, entertain, and amaze. This book is a particularly rare example on astronomy published in the USSR in 1982.

A Collection of Alphabets Dedicated to Artists is a small pattern book of decorative and ornamented typefaces for alphabets and numbers. Containing variations of common Roman, Gothic, and Italian letter forms, it offers letters of the alphabet formed by human figures, silhouettes of human figures, and animals. Interestingly, it also has a page of the letters formed by hands in sign language alphabet.