Toot and Re-Toot: The Return of Hardie Gramatky's Little Toot

December 21, 2007 - May 4, 2008
Central Gallery

A perennial favorite, Hardie Gramatky’s Little Toot has sold over six million copies and has never been out of print. Reprinted with restored colors and the original endpapers on the centenary of Gramatky’s birth, Little Toot continues to charm and enchant its audience. 

Gramatky, who worked as an artist at Walt Disney during the Great Depression, brought something entirely new to the art of the picture book: an animator’s pacing and flair for comic action. In this exhibition, never-before seen sketches from Gramatky’s Disney days and from his unpublished notebooks provide an in-depth view of the genesis of a classic tale about an exuberant tugboat. 

This exhibition was made possible in part by a gift from Matthew and Ellen Lougee Simmons and by the guidance and encouragement of Kendall and Linda Gramatky Smith.