Hamlin Garland Papers: Collection Highlights from USC Libraries Special Collections

Constance Garland

Hamlin Garland’s youngest daughter, Constance, used her talents as a visual artist to illustrate many of her father’s works. On display are pen and ink drawings by Constance Garland for illustrated editions of two of her father’s works, Trail-Makers of the Middle Border and Main-Travelled Roads.

Constance Garland also designed and created her father’s bookplate, which was stamped inside each of the books in the Garland family’s extensive library (most of which was also donated to USC). In a 1942 letter to USC librarian Christian Dick, Constance describes the bookplate’s symbolism:

The plate was supposed to indicate the various phases in Father’s life. In the upper left corner is New York; the lower left the cornstalk, signifying Iowa. In the center at the top are the plains of Dakota. The large central block represents the Rocky Mountain country. The center (bottom) is a coulee in Wisconsin, and the one at the upper right is my uncle Lorado Taft’s statue of Black Hawk which stands on the bluffs over the Illinois River, near the artists’ colony where Father and Mother met. And the yucca on the right is for California, at the "end of the trail."


Items pictured above:

(Image 1) Pen and ink drawing by Constance Garland for an illustrated edition of Main-Travelled Roads by Hamlin Garland, circa 1926-1930.
View this item in the Hamlin Garland papers finding aid.

(Image 2) Hamlin Garland ex-libris bookplate engraving by Constance Garland, undated.
View this item in the Hamlin Garland papers finding aid.

(Image 3) Ex-libris bookplate proof print, undated.
View this item in the Hamlin Garland papers finding aid.

More from the exhibit:

Pen and ink drawings by Constance Garland for illustrated editions of two of her father’s works: Trail-Makers of the Middle Border and Main-Travelled Roads, circa 1926-1930.
Find these drawings in the Hamlin Garland papers finding aid.

Constance Garland's description of the Hamlin Garland ex-libris bookplate, 1942.
View this item in the Hamlin Garland papers finding aid.

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