Dorothy P. Lathrop: Illustrations to Down-Adown-Derry, 1st part

Dorothy Pulis Lathrop  (1891 - 1980) was one of the most influential and important illustrators of children's books in the thirties and forties.  She began her career in 1918. At that time she was a 27 year old teacher of art in Albany. Arguably her most famous works were the illustrations for Rachel Field's, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, the story of a doll. The book was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1930 and a new edition was in the stores for Christmas 1999. 

Lathrop was awarded the very first Caldecott Medal in 1938 for her book Animals of the Bible (1937). She mentions in her acceptance speech that she was personally attracted to the stories of the fiercer beasts, but her editors worried that such images might frighten the young readers.

Down-Adown-Derry: A Book of Fairy Poems by  Walter De La Mare was published in 1922.

 Frontispiece