Henriette Willebeek LeMair

This week I am highlighting 4 Internet Archive books published between 1912 and 1917 that include Henriette Willebeek LeMair’s illustrations of children. They are an idealized version of childhood during that time in Holland. I was interested in the activities depicted!

Grannie’s Little Rhyme Book (1914) is a collection of old nursery rhymes that she illustrated.

The Children’s Corner (1915) was written by R.H. Elkin. Ordinary things like a child getting a haircut and dolls in timeout show up in the text and illustrations!

Old Dutch Nursery Rhymes (1917) has tunes compiled by J. Joentgen…with the English added by R.H. Elkins. The illustrations I chose for my samples are for tunes “The Ducks” and “The stork has brough a baby brother”!

Little Songs of Long Ago (1912) has tunes compiled by Alfred Moffat. The tunes illustrated by the samples below are “Dame get up and bake your pies” and “See-saw, Marjorie Daw.”

Life has changed in many ways for children in the past 100+ years….but the spirit of children that comes through in the illustration is still easy to find today. What will it be like for children 100 years from now? It is something I am thinking about a lot recently….and how I can turn my concern about the changes happening in the Earth’s climate into action.