Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1943 (Creation)
Level of description
Manuscript Collection
Extent and medium
2 binders (15 x 13”)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Margaret Bloy Graham (1920-2015) was a Canadian illustrator and author best known for her pictures for the children’s book Harry the Dirty Dog, a collaboration with her then-husband Gene Zion. First published in 1956, the book turned into a series and garnered much praise with Harper Collins releasing a 50th anniversary edition in 2006. Graham also illustrated a series she wrote herself about a dog named Benjy. She was a runner up twice for the Caldecott medal (awarded by the American Library Association to the best illustrated book of the year) for the books All Falling Down (1951) and The Storm Book (1952). Born in Toronto, Graham studied art as a child and earned a degree in art history from the University of Toronto before moving to New York where she pursued a career as a commercial artist.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gift of Margaret Bloy Graham, 2006.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Collection consists of three cycles of original pen on paper drawings by Margaret Bloy Graham compiled into portfolio-style binders by the artist. The drawings in Look Out Browning: the British Poets Revisited and More Victoriana are illustrations for famous British poems selected from Palgrave’s Golden Treasury, a popular anthology of Victorian poetry originally published in 1861. The drawings are numbered and correspond to an accompanying list with excerpts from the poems illustrated, totaling thirty-six poems by twelve poets including Robert Browning, Percy B. Shelley and Alfred Tennyson, among others. The cycle Pictures with Morals features darkly comedic punishments for children who make mistakes like being too curious, sledding on Sunday, not reading the Bible daily, and trespassing.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
No restrictions on access.
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-form