Once upon a children's book

The 'Once upon a time: a world of children’s picture book art' exhibition opens on Friday 21st March and runs till Sunday 31st August, in the Cowen Gallery of the State Library of Victoria in Swanston Street Melbourne.

from 'The hidden forest' by Jeannie Baker

May Gibbs' gumnut babies

Let your imagination run wild in this free exhibition celebrating the world of children’s picture book art. See classic characters like Blinky Bill and the Magic Pudding, as well as fun favourites including Miffy, Grandma Poss and Old Tom. You’ll also see aliens and fairies, tigers and bears, cranky cats, playful pups and a dinosaur who does the dishes!

 Look at original drawings, dummy books and videos about the artworks to discover the magic behind creating illustrated stories, then create your own story with our free activity booklet.

The State Library is now the custodian of Dromkeen Children’s Literature Collection which was previously at the Oldmeadows’Dromkeen Homestead at Riddells Creek. 

The collection consists of approximately 7500 original artworks and illustrations from prepublication material of many of Australia’s best-loved children’s books. The collection also includes a historical book collection, six bronze sculptures of picture book characters and the Dromkeen archive.

The prepublication artworks include early drafts of classics like Ron Brooks’ “John Brown, Rose and the Midnight cat”, before John Brown became an Old English sheepdog.

There are the rare copies of stories, such as the original “The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek” by Jenny Wagner, the story and illustrations had successfully passed through all the editing and publishing stages when a young child pointed out that the male wallaby had a young joey in a pouch. Successive editions changed the ‘his’ to a ‘her’!

The original 'Bunyip of Berkeleys Creek'

With the State Library, the Dromkeen Collection continues to foster a love of books & reading, and to support literacy among young people.