Beatrix Potter Illustrations and Manuscripts at The Morgan

The Morgan Library & Museum will present Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature, running February 23 through June 9, an exhibition telling the life story of Beatrix Potter, one of the 20th century’s best-loved authors of children’s fiction. 

The New York exhibition is rooted in Beatrix Potter’s relationship with the natural world, from the influence of the countryside in her youth to her passion for sheep farming and land conservation in adulthood. Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, the exhibition brings together artworks, books, manuscripts, and artifacts from several institutions in the United Kingdom, including the V&A, the National Trust, and the Armitt Museum and Library. Paired with the Morgan’s exceptional collection of Potter’s picture letters, these objects show how her innovative blend of scientific observation and imaginative storytelling shaped some of the world’s most popular children’s books.

The first section, Town and Country, establishes a sense of the places and spaces that defined Potter’s childhood, starting with her life in South Kensington, London. Exploring Potter’s family life and her development as an artist, this section includes early sketchbooks, objects from her home, artwork by her family, and even a page of an encrypted diary that Potter kept from her adolescence into her 30s.

The next section, Under the Microscope, examines Potter’s interest in the natural sciences, including insects, anatomy, and mycology, or the study of fungi. This section traces the fascination with animals that Potter shared with her brother, Bertram, highlighting their collection of pets, which the siblings studied by making drawings. It also showcases Potter’s work as an amateur mycologist through the display of intricate and scientifically impressive drawings of fungi. 

The subsection “In the Country” delves into Potter’s formative childhood summers spent in Scotland and in northwest England’s Lake District, where she collected fossils, fungi, and other natural ephemera. It explores the influence of these travels with her family, emphasizing how nature shaped Potter’s artistic process, as seen in early sketches and picture letters depicting natural scenery.

The third section, A Natural Storyteller, reveals Potter’s almost accidental journey to becoming a best-selling author, centering on the beloved books that Potter wrote for children and the stories behind them. This section builds from her early commercial holiday card designs to her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit. On view are preparatory sketches for Peter Rabbit, as well as Potter’s paintings of the real-life places that inspired Mr. McGregor’s garden in The Tale of Benjamin Bunny. The installation includes miniatures that reflect the small scale of many of Potter’s stories, including tiny letters that she wrote in the voices of her characters and sent to children. Small-scale reading is central to an understanding of Potter’s work, and many of her “little books” that she published following The Tale of Peter Rabbit are also on view.

Finally, the section Living Nature follows Potter into her later life in the Lake District in northwest England. Through letters, photographs, and paintings, the section shows how Potter transitioned away from working as an illustrator and writer in order to dedicate herself to her community and its environment through farming and conservation. 

The show ends with a look at the 4,000 acres she bequeathed to the UK’s National Trust, highlighting Potter’s extraordinary legacy, which persists not only in her books but in the environment itself: her efforts helped preserve the natural spaces that fostered her scientific pursuits and fired her imagination.