AUSTIN, TX.- The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin presents Words and Wonder: Rediscovering Children’s Literature, an interdisciplinary exhibition examining the history, artistry, and impact of children’s literature. Opening February 25, 2025, and running through August 17, 2025, this exhibition celebrates the creation and lasting impact of children’s storytelling through a range of mediums.

Words and Wonder explores the storytelling process through two distinctive lenses: the perspectives of children as readers, writers, and performers, and the contributions of early twentieth-century illustrators and artists who envisioned fantastical worlds for young audiences. The exhibition explores early modern education and literacy practices, featuring rare seventeenth-century hornbooks and marginalia that reveal how children interacted with the texts.

“This exhibition aims to turn back the hands of the clock and reawaken childhood wonder in exhibition visitors of all ages,” said Stephen Enniss, Director of the Harry Ransom Center. “It is a reminder of that capacity for wonder that is still within our grasp if we listen for the child within each one of us.”

Key highlights of the exhibition include:

• Early examples of juvenilia by authors such as Gabriel García Márquez, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jayne Anne Phillips, and J. M. Coetzee, which shed light on the formative creative processes of these literary figures.

• Artifacts from early twentieth-century children’s theatre, including a costume hat worn by renowned child actress Elsie Leslie in the 1890 Broadway production of The Prince and the Pauper.

• Magic lantern slides illustrating Aesop’s Fables and Alice in Wonderland, alongside original animation cels from Walt Disney’s 1951 production of Alice in Wonderland.

• Iconic illustrations from The House on Pooh Corner by Ernest Howard Shepard, Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and Arthur Rackham’s imaginative reinterpretations of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination for younger audiences.

“Culminating in an exploration of the artistic techniques and creative processes that have shaped children’s literature and its illustrations,” Erica Nunn-Kinias, Associate Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs notes, “this exhibition invites visitors to engage with these works both critically and creatively.”

The Harry Ransom Center has designed Words and Wonder to inspire and educate audiences of all ages. For younger visitors, the exhibition includes an interactive activity workbook, a reading nook, and an art-making space, encouraging hands-on engagement with the works on display.

The exhibition emphasizes the continuing relevance of children’s literature in fostering creativity, imagination, and critical thought, inviting scholars and enthusiasts alike to rediscover this rich and dynamic field.