Beyond Goodnight Moon: The World of Margaret Wise Brown

On view January 26 – May 22, 2027 in the Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery

The impact of author Margaret Wise Brown (1910–1952) on children’s book publishing was revolutionary. The pervasive popularity of the titles for which she is best known today—Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny—not only overshadows the rest of her prolific output, but also obscures the influential role her books played in challenging the orthodoxies of children’s publishing when they first appeared in the 1940s.

Drawing from an extensive private collection of Brown’s work, this show tells her story through unpublished manuscripts, letters, photographs, and artwork, as well as personal items once owned by Brown. By placing these materials in conversation with an array of first editions of the picture books she authored, this exhibition seeks to recapture a sense of Margaret Wise Brown’s extraordinary creativity and forceful personality, the impact of her innovative, experiential, child-centered approach, and the ongoing legacy of her intensive collaborations with illustrators and publishers.