H.J. “Lutcher” Stark likely read many children’s books while growing up in The W.H. Stark House. Reforms in child labor and education laws, as well as evolving trends in childrearing and motherhood, all would have influenced Lutcher Stark’s childhood in The Stark House. These education and labor movements often found their way into children’s books. Books like these not only told stories, but also taught children about the world and how they were expected to behave. The books on display in “Off the Shelf: Children’s Literature of The W.H. Stark House” date from 1881 to 1924 and were owned by the Stark family. They reveal how literature may have impacted young Lutcher Stark and his childhood in Orange, Texas.
This exhibition will be on display in Hallway 3 of the Stark Museum of Art from March 7 – December 20, 2025. The Stark Museum of Art is open Wednesday - Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Books on Display:
Another Brownie Book – Palmer Cox 1890
Under Drake’s
Flag The 3 Little Kittens – McLoughlin Brothers 1890
A Wonder Book – Nathaniel Hawthorne OD.2013.129 original pub 1851
A Child’s Garden of Verses – Robert Louis Stevenson 1919
Robin Hood – McLoughlin Brothers 1895
Aesop’s Fables – Ernest Griset
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett 1911
The Prince and the Pauper – Mark Twain 1919
Jungle Book
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew – Harriett Mulford Lothrop 1881
Andersen’s Fairy Tales – Hans Christian Andersen 1897
Grimm’s Fairy Tales – Harry S. Watson 1894
Tom Thumb
When We Were Very Young – Alan Alexander Milne 1924
The Little Mother Goose – Jessie Willcox Smith 1918
Stories from Dickens – J Walker McSpadden 1924
Young Folks Pictorial Tour of the World – Hurst and Company 1895
Der Kleine König [The Little King] Georg W. Dietrich Publishing, German c. 1905
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift 1896
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe c. 1895
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll 1911