Illustrator Arthur Rackham’s drawings for J.M. Barrie’s 1906 book “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens” are part of the Houghton Library collection at Harvard. Here Peter Pan puts his strange case before “old Solomon Caw” (photo 1); the fairies have a “tiffs with the birds” (photo 2); and Maimie (photo 3) is heard by the chrysanthemum.

Images courtesy of Houghton Library/Harvard University

Arts & Culture

The Peter Pan portfolio

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Harvard’s Houghton Library contains vivid illustrations from ‘Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens’

Harvard’s Houghton Library contains a lush Peter Pan portfolio, a collection of vivid drawings by noted illustrator Arthur Rackham. The dozen detailed images are from the children’s book “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens,” published by J.M. Barrie in 1906. The work was based on a series of chapters in Barrie’s earlier short story collection from 1902 titled “The Little White Bird,” which featured the first iteration of the character Peter Pan, a little boy who is part bird and never wants to grow up.