Lynd Ward


Les Miserables: Cosette ; frontispiece illus. for the book by Victor Hugo, published by Limited Editions Club, 1938

An exhibit in the Fairchild Gallery this summer focuses on artist Lynd Ward's original designs for book illustrations, primarily those for children. Lauinger Library's Special Collections Division holds a wealth of resources by and about Lynd Ward, and his extensive achievement in the medium of wood engraving, which established his reputation as an illustrator, will be a subject developed in a future exhibition.

A comprehensive overview of the artist's work in all media was exhibited in the Gunlocke reading room soon after the family decided to donate more than 1,000 works of art as well as most of Ward's personal and business correspondence to the library in the early 1980s. The pieces in the current exhibition, executed in watercolor and a variety of drawing media, reveal Lynd Ward's unique talent as an illustrator, beginning with Prince Bantam (1929), the first of many collaborations with his wife as author, and ending with The Silver Pony (1973), just a few years before ill health caused his retirement from the field.

The Lynd Ward exhibit may be visited through August 9 in the Fairchild Gallery on the fifth floor of Lauinger Library, or virtually at http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/lynd_ward/index.htm