The family initially lived at 552 Franklin St. and were regular attendees at the Grace M.E. Church. An 8-year-old McCloskey was listed among those performing a song as part of a performance at Grace M.E. in 1922, possibly the impetus for McCloskey teaching himself how to play the harmonica.
Being involved with the Hamilton YMCA throughout his childhood and teenage years, McCloskey was a regular attendee and performer at Y events, was a member of the Hi-Y Club, and even started a harmonic quartet. A natural tinkerer with a strong sense of curiosity and wonder, he also volunteered as a hobby instructor for the Y, teaching lessons in wood, linoleum, and soap carving, clay sculpting, silver craft, and harmonica.
The Y’s camps would end up playing an important role in McCloskey’s life. He participated in the opening of Camp Keewaydin in 1925 and the following year was part of the first contingent of campers at Camp Campbell Gard. McCloskey was among those who hiked to the new camp from the YMCA building in German Village as part of its dedication and opening ceremony.
McCloskey camped there every summer and joined the camp staff, carving the totem pole that later became an iconic part of Camp Campbell Gard while in that position. A 1932 newspaper announcement that McCloskey would once again be joining the camp staff commented on McCloskey, “[He] needs no introduction to Hamilton people…equally well known as a musician, comedian, and mechanical genius.”
A pair of art projects completed as a student at Hamilton High School would prove to be the impetus for McCloskey’s success. One of these was a booklet created in commemoration of George Washington’s birthday that included hand carved wood cuts made by McCloskey and took second place in a statewide contest.
The other was the 1931 Hamilton High School yearbook “The Hollander.” McCloskey worked as the art editor for the yearbook, which included additional wood cuts of Dutch themed scenes.
In 1932, McCloskey’s art teacher, Josephine Slater, submitted his work to the Federation of Art in Washington, D.C. which resulted in the first national recognition of McCloskey’s work when it was included in the National Scholastic Exhibit of Art at New York’s Museum of Natural History.
The following year, McCloskey was awarded the contract to carve the friezes and do other decorative work for the new Hamilton Municipal Building, a New Deal project of the PWA. These hand carved interior and exterior friezes illustrated themes of Hamilton’s agriculture, industry and history.
McCloskey won a scholarship to the Vesper George Academy of Applied Arts in Boston and was also invited to attend the Tiffany Foundation to exhibit his work. He was awarded another scholarship to attend the National Academy of Design for its 1935-1936 school year. Although he had moved to New York, he returned to Camp Campbell Gard for at least three more years and was last recorded as being on the camp staff in 1938.
It was around this time McCloskey brought some of his work to his long-time editor May Massee for review. Massee told him to “shelve the dragons, pegasus, and limpid pool business and learn how and what to ‘art’ with.”
Returning to Hamilton, McCloskey wrote and illustrated his first book, “Lentil,” published in 1940. Though set in the fictional town of Alto, Ohio, the setting and illustrations closely resembled and were based on Hamilton. The inspiration for the appearance of Lentil, the main character in the story, was based on an acquaintance of McCloskey’s from the YMCA.
Leaving Hamilton again, McCloskey headed for Boston where he worked as a mural painter and a syndicated cartoonist. Massee invited him to attend a party with people from the literary world where he met notable children’s author Ruth (Sawyer) Durand and her daughter Margaret “Peggy” Durand, a librarian at New York Public Library. McCloskey married Peggy in 1940.
His second children’s book “Make Way for Ducklings”, a Caldecott Medal winner, was published the following year. McCloskey next wrote and illustrated “Homer Price,” set in Centerburg, another Hamilton inspired fictional town.
With the start of World War II, McCloskey entered the U.S. Army and was stationed at Ft. McClellan, Ala. where he assisted with illustrating army manuals and other training materials. The World War II also delayed by a decade McCloskey’s acceptance of the Prix de Roma scholarship that he had been awarded in 1939 to travel to Rome to study art.
Around 1946 the McCloskey’s purchased Deer Isle, and permanently relocated to Maine. The works that followed were “Blueberries for Sal” (1948), “Centerburg Tales: More Adventures of Homer Price (1951),” “One Morning in Maine” (1952), Journey Cake, Ho! (1953), “Time of Wonder” (1957), and “Burt Dow, Deep-water Man” (1963) as well as illustrations for others.
McCloskey returned to Butler County on a few occasions, including a 1964 visit to accept an honorary degree of doctor of letters from Miami University and three visits to the Hamilton Lane Library. The children’s department of the library was dedicated to McCloskey and renamed “The McCloskey Room” in 1966 as part of the library’s centennial celebration.
In 1991, a year after Peggy’s death, McCloskey travelled to Russia with President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush to present a set of duckling statues from the children of the United States to the children of Russia.
After earning two Caldecott Medals and three Caldecott Honors, receiving a special citation from the American Library Association, being designated a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, and having “Make Way for Ducklings” named the official state book of Massachusetts, McCloskey died on June 30, 2003 as a result of Parkinson’s Disease.
The Robert McCloskey Museum at Heritage Hall, the building exhibiting McCloskey’s friezes, was dedicated in 2007. Now the McCloskey Wonder Works Museum, the museum collection is currently housed at Pyramid Hill with an exhibit on McCloskey’s life and works open from May to November.
Brad Spurlock is the manager of the Smith Library of Regional History and Cummins Local History Room, Lane Libraries. A certified archivist, Brad has over a decade of experience working with local history, maintaining archival collections and collaborating on community history projects.
About the Author