Children's literature collections

ELOISE WILKIN Papers

Coll. 213

Biography

Eloise Wilkin was born Eloise Burns on March 30, 1904 in Rochester, New York. Her career, covering more than fifty years, involved free-lance drawing, doll designing, illustration and writing.

Wilkin won several awards for her writings and illustrations including the Ewald Eisenhardt Memorial Merit Award for excellence in printmaking for her lithograph "Lilybet." Two books which she illustrated, The Boy With a Drum (1971) by David L. Harrison and I Hear: Sounds In a Child's World (1971) by Lucille Ogle and Tina Thoburn, were each named children's book of the year by the Child Study Association of America. She also received honorable mention in l940 from the New York Times Book Review for her illustrations for A Good House for a Mouse written by Irmengarde Eberle, 1940, and in 1950 for The Tune is in the Tree written by Maud Hart Lovelace.

Eloise Wilkin was also known for designing dolls and doll houses. In the 1960s she successfully marketed a new-born infant doll called "Baby Dear." Reportedly, former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev returned home with several of the dolls after a trip to a toy store in New York City.

While studying art at Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology), Wilkin met Joan Esley, best known as an illustrator of several books for adolescents. They formed a lifelong friendship that included collaboration on The Visit. Eloise Wilkin died October 4, 1987 in Rochester, New York.

Source: Contemporary Authors, Volume 124, pp. 478-479.

--Lisa Harrell, Manuscript Processor, May 1992

Scope and Content

The Eloise Wilkin collection contains materials relating entirely to the book, The Visit. Materials include chronologically arranged correspondence, a typed revised draft of the manuscript, photographs, a dummy book, original artwork, and a bound copy of the book.

Inventory

1979-1980

1 solander case
3 lin. ft.

Box/Folder

1/1 Inventory
1/2 Correspondence, 1979-1980
1/3 Manuscript: Typed draft with revisions
1/4 Photographs
Dummy Original artwork (11) Book--The Visit by Joan Esley

Maintained by: N. Helmer, spcarref@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 10/30/2006