Saving Stories: My First Week at the Baldwin Library

Almost seven months after finding out I was the 2025 ALSC Bechtel Fellow, I journeyed down to Gainesville, Florida to officially begin my research at the Baldwin Library of Children’s Literature, and by the end of my first week, I had unearthed a secret undertone of my project that made me feel like a storytelling saver, not just an avid researcher and reader. The Margaret Sidney collection at the Baldwin Library consists of five archival boxes filled with handwritten manuscripts, 19th century newspapers clippings, letters and old envelopes, tiny notebooks accounting for tiny payments (by today’s standards) and illustration plates from Sidney’s most famous book series, The Five Little Peppers. I began methodically making my way through the boxes, cataloging what I thought might be most useful to my research topic of her didactic prose and the installation of good citizenship in children, but then certain titles on folders began…
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