Ellery Yale Wood ’52 moved to London in the early 1960s, got a job at a rare book store, and began buying eighteenth and nineteenth-century books written for girls and young women. Collecting over fifty years, Wood accumulated thousands of volumes, which she left to the College.

The books in this exhibition give the barest glimpse of that magnificent collection. Educational books include illustrated ABCs and early readers. Good children are rewarded and bad ones punished in stories that convey moral counsel. Brightly colored pictures enhance books that stir the imagination — fairy and folk tales, stories about dolls and school, nonsense rhymes. Magazines “for the instruction and amusement of youth,” and books that teach domestic skills serve the needs of older readers. And volumes of riddles and games, paper dolls, pop-ups, and other printed toys demonstrate that some books are just for fun.

Welcome to Ellery Yale Wood’s library!