After a year of restoration and make-up, Winnie-the-pooh and his gang are put on display again.
The original Winnie-the-pooh and friends, Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga and Tigger stuff toy, are home at last in New York Public Library after a year in the tender care of a textile restoration expert.
The stuffed toys are owned by Christopher Robin Milne which were given as gifts by his father, A.A. Milne, the author of the Winnie-the-pooh children’s stories, for his first birthday in 1920.
Pooh, nervous little Piglet, gloomy Eeyore, maternal Kanga and bouncy Tigger went back on display in the library’s Children’s Room on Wednesday, following more than a year of refreshing repairs on the stuffed toys by a textile conservator.
Could the toys talk, they woould be amazed of a whole new environment and ambiance in the library. Now they’re back on display against a map of the Hundred Acre Wood, that fuzzy space between make-believe and Sussex, England, where author A. A. Milne lived with his family.
Christopher recalled that he first called his bear as Edward Bear until they changed it to ‘Winnie’, coined from a bear’s name in London Zoo, which was first used as a military mascot in Winnipeg, Canada and ‘Pooh’ was from his pet swan.
Milnes publisher donated the stuff toys to New York Public Library where they has resided with some of his famous pals since 1987, after a much-needed break for conservation.
As anyone who has been a 5-year-old in the last century knows, Pooh and the gang are the unforgettable characters of Milne’s books of children’s stories and poems (Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, Now We are Six) published in the 1920s.
Everybody could recall Winnie-the-pooh as a huggable buddy but he surely is older than nowadays grannies. He will turn 95 on August 21.
The library says kids (and adults) have been busy making him birthday cards online and in the Children’s Room to celebrate the occasion.