Special Collections & Archives: Children's Literature Collection

The Children's Literature Collection came to existence in the 1990s by acquiring book material from different depositors and sources with the aim  to build a resource center for supporting the teaching and research of children literature studies at Roehampton. It is a reference collection of about 3,000 critical, theoretical, bibliographical and reference works. The Collection also holds runs of approximately 40 specialist children's literature journals.   

Holdings

• Large number of periodicals and reference works su​ch as Children's Literature Review
• Books on the history of children’s literature
• Biography and autobiography of children’s authors and illustrators
• Children's books of historical interest and significance, primarily from the later eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. These include the Bratt​on Collection, the Street Children Collection and the Hammersmith and Fulham Collection
• A number of newly published children’s books, usually prize winners, are regularly added to the collection
• Foreign books including contemporary picture books in Japanese and French as well as international translations into English
• Adaptations of children's books:  film, TV and audio

The collection of children's books also contains several smaller collections, with some of the largest of these being:

• The Bratton Collection: A collection of 900 books, dating 19th Century-20th Century, deposited by Professor Jacqueline Bratton, a previous member of staff at Roehampton Institute London (now known as the University of Roehampton)
• The Sharpe Collection: A collection of books dating 18th Century-20th Century, previously held at Whitelands College within the Univeristy of Roehampton
• The Streatfeild Collection: A collection of works by author Noel Streatfeild, dating 20th Century, which have been deposited by a private collector
• The Street Children Collection: A collection of fiction books about street children, dating late-19th Century to early-20th Century, and deposited by a private collector
• Hammersmith and Fulham Early Children’s Books Collection: A collection of books dated 18th Century to early-20th Century, deposited by Hammersmith and Fulham Libraries

The collection is located in the Special Collections section on the second floor of the Library. Parts of it are on open access and can be viewed during the Library opening hours. Other parts of the collection require supervised access;  please contact the Archivist​ to make an appointment for the latter.

Most books can be found via the Library catalogue except for the Hammersmith and Fulham Collection, linked below. 

A small number of key texts have been digitised and are available through our Special Collections Digital Resources.