Winnie the Pooh is as beloved today as it was when it was first published in 1926 by the novelist and playwright Alan Alexander Milne. Two years earlier, Ernest Howard Shepard was commissioned to illustrate the children’s story. He worked closely with Milne at the author’s country retreat in Ashdown Forest, England, bringing Milne’s characters to life through simple linear illustrations like these. A short quote from the first publication accompanied the drawing: Pooh, Eeyore, and Piglet are shown with Pooh’s signature pot of honey and the line “It’s a useful pot, said Pooh.” Before his work on Winnie the Pooh, Howard was a successful illustrator working for book publications and for Punch, a British weekly humor magazine. His delightful and spirited drawings remained an indispensable source of joy for late 20th-century readers.

Adapted from

Nicole Myers, DMA label copy, 2018.

• A.A. Milne was inspired to create Winnie the Pooh after a bear named Winnipeg, also known as "Winnie," who was purchased by a member of the Canadian cavalry regiment and subsequently left with the London Zoo. Milne's son, Christopher Robin, was a big fan of Winnie's and renamed his teddy bear "Winnie the Pooh" after visiting her.

• Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA
  Read a biography of Ernest Howard Shepard from the Norman Rockwell Museum.

• Victoria & Albert Museum, London
  Check out this past exhibition from the V&A; titled Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic.

• Victoria & Albert Museum, London
  Explore this teachers' resource from the V&A;'s Winnie the Pooh show.

• Assiniboine Park Zoo, Winnipeg, Canada
  Learn more about the real Winnie the Pooh from the Assiniboine Zoo.