Villanova Special Collections: Link
Special collections is located on the second floor of Falvey Library. You can contact Special Collections to inquire about materials and set up appointments to view materials not available digitally.
Villanova's Digital Library: Link
A part of Special Collections you can search Villanova's digital library for "children's literature" or any other set of keywords that you wish.
Overview of Relevant Materials:
A significant amount of the popular collections in Special Collections are related to children's literature from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Much of this has been digitized, but some is still being worked on. There are also items in other collections such as the McGarrity Collection and the Sherman-Thackara collections too.
Especially in the areas of fairy tales and children's serial literature - Villanova's collection are significant enough to warrant any researcher reaching out to emailing DCDE staff to assist with any research.
Here are some of the noteworthy digitized items and searches (much additional content exists that needs to be added to the catalog as well as digitized):
Jack B. Yeats His Pictorial and Dramatic Art
https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:124267
Other Jack Yeats content:
https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Author/Home?author=Yeats%2C+Jack+Butler%2C+1871-1957.
Cinderella and the little glass slipper
https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:26014
Puss in Boots series
https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:367370
American Chatterbox
https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:434755
Golden Days for Boys and Girls
https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:284180
Chimney Corner
https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:331826
Search "Children's literature" in the Subject of digitized objects will give you a list of hundreds items on the topic in the 19th century:
https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Search/Results?lookfor=Children%27s+Literature&type=Subject&limit=20&sort=relevance
