Dorothy Kunhardt's Pat the Bunny

Dorothy Kunhardt was already a successful children’s book author when she wrote Pat the Bunny for her three-year-old daughter, Edith. Pat the Bunny is a “touch and feel” book for children and babies that has been a perennial best-seller since its publication in 1940. Free of narrative, the text is an invitation to pat the fake fur of a rabbit on one page, feel the sandpaper of “daddy’s beard” on another, and look in a mirror at the end. The exhibition, taken from the archive of the Meserve Kunhardt Foundation, explores the evolution of this innovative book as well as other facets of Kunhardt’s rich and varied career. 

Support for this exhibition was provided by Random House Children’s Books.