IN THE Central Gallery

Illustrated Owls: A Who’s Hoo from the Museum’s Vault

Nocturnal birds of prey, owls have figured in world cultures throughout history, from Greek mythology to Harry Potter’s Hedwig. Artists and writers have long been drawn to owls as symbols of wisdom, envoys to the spirit world, or as harbingers of misfortune. Selected from The Carle’s storage vault, Illustrated Owls features, among others, Garth Williams’s Children’s Book Week poster from 1955, Ezra Jack Keats’s lithograph from Zoo Where Are You? (1964), Maurice Sendak’s lithograph from A Kiss for Little Bear (1971), José Areugo and Ariane Dewey’s watercolor from Owliver (1974), Barry Moser’s resingrave print from The Pennyroyal Caxton Edition of the Holy Bible (1999), and numerous E. H. Shepard illustrations of Owl, Pooh, Tigger, and other friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Exhibition design by Katie Craig.