Kathryn Bowman was born in New York City on May 29, 1907. Upon graduating from Erasmus High School, Kathryn attended the Pratt Institute where she majored in Art Education before moving to Scranton, Pennsylvania to work as fashion artist for the Globe Store, a regional department store. It was at Pratt where she met her future husband, Byron H. Jackson, Jr., an art instructor; Byron was the son of Dr. Byron H. Jackson, an X-ray specialist from Scranton, PA. After marrying in 1934, Byron, Jr. left his teaching position and moved with Kathryn to Scranton where he worked as a commercial artist.
Kathryn and Byron initially wrote their first children’s book, A Rabbit Who Had Four Lucky Feet solely for the enjoyment of their first son, Peter; however, Simon and Schuster soon discovered the story and would eventually publish 11,000 copies. The Jacksons made an effective writing team, authoring over fifty titles for the publisher’s Golden Books series, including the popular Saggy Baggy Elephant and the Tawny Scrawny Lion, both of which appeared in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for several years. Their partnership flourished through the 1940s and extended to writing scripts for audio books; songs; and playlets based upon a number of Golden Books.
Byron’s sudden death in 1949 at the age of fifty left Kathryn with two small children to support: sons Byron “Peter” Hubbard Jackson, III (b. 1937) and Timothy Alan Jackson (b.1948). While her professional correspondence reflects the polished urgency of a modern businesswoman, Kathyrn’s personal papers hint at the diffiuclties of raising a family alone in mid-twentieth century New York. In 1955 she assumed the post of Senior Editor at Silver Burdett Textbook Company in Morristown, NJ, where she planned and wrote supplementary readers for young children. Jackson’s subsequent move to Scholastic Magazine in 1960 resulted in numerous innovations to early childhood curriculum.
Upon retiring from Scholastic in 1969, Kathryn returned to writing, as well as consulting on early childhood projects for organizations such as the National Geographic Society; during this time she also began volunteering for the Friends of the Morristown and Morris Township Library, where she rose to the position of President. A Morristown resident for several decades, Kathryn B. Jackson died on October 19, 1985.
The collection consists of family papers and business records dating from 1901 to 1994 (bulk dates, 1937-1984), and is comprised of six series: Professional Papers, Family Papers, Friends of the Library, Manuscripts, Photographs, and Publications. The materials include professional and personal correspondence, drafts of published and unpublished manuscripts, newspaper clippings, family portraits and snapshots, and copies of books written by Kathryn and Byron. Much of the family papers relate to Kathryn’s first husband, Byron, and her sons Timothy and Peter.
The collection is arranged into six series: Professional Papers and Manuscripts are organized alphabetically, whereas Family Papers, Friends of the Library, Photographs are arranged chronologically. Jackson’s published works are cataloged separately and shelved in the Morristown authors section (HM7).
This collection is open for research under the conditions set forth in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center archives access policy. All archival material should be handled with care and kept in its original order; notes may only be taken in pencil or with a computer, and food and drink are prohibited in the Reading Room. Records may be copied for scholarly or personal research using the edge scanner or a digital camera without flash; however, researchers must obtain copyright permission prior to publishing material from the collection.
The Kathryn B. Jackson Papers were donated to the Morristown and Morris Township Library by Timothy Jackson in November 2014.
Kathryn B. Jackson Papers, 1901-1994. North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, Morristown and Morris Township Library.
Processed and described by Jeffrey V. Moy, Archivist, December 2014. Encoded June 2015.