Among Boston’s famous landmarks — Paul Revere’s house, Fenway Park, Faneuil Hall, the U.S.S. Constitution — there’s also a smaller but popular attraction in the city’s Public Garden.
You need to look down, not up, for this one: a bronze mother duck, with eight little ones trailing behind her. Chances are you might know their names, or at least some of them — Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack.
They’re the family of web-footed travelers whom children’s author and artist Robert McCloskey made famous in “Make Way for Ducklings,” one of America’s most celebrated picture books and the official children’s book of Massachusetts; it’s been translated into many languages over the years, as well.
And since “Ducklings” has turned 75 this year, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst is using the occasion to highlight the work of McCloskey (1914-2003), who also wrote about the Maine coast and small-town America, evoking a umid-20th century aesthetic that recalled something of Norman Rockwell.
“Americana on Parade: The Art of Robert McCloskey,” which runs through Oct. 23, features more than 90 original artworks and other material, such as photos of the artist playing the harmonica as a young man (his first book, “Lentil,” was about a harmonica-playing boy from a small Ohio town, much like that of Hamilton, Ohio, where McCloskey grew up).
Though much of the material comes from “Make Way for Ducklings,” the exhibit includes illustrations and paintings McCloskey did for his seven other original titles and the 12 books he illustrated for other writers, as well as paintings he did in his later career and as a student.
Ellen Keiter, the Carle’s chief curator, says McCloskey wasn’t especially prolific; he didn’t publish much past 1960 and generally stayed out of the limelight, instead spending much of his later years working on his prototype of a pre-Pixar, animated puppet.
But in just over 15 years, McCloskey won two Caldecott Medals (one was for “Ducklings”), the highest U.S. award for picture books, and he was the runner-up for three others.
“He was an amazing talent,” Keiter said. “Here it is, 75 years later, and [‘Make Way for Ducklings’] is still in print, still popular.”
Though McCloskey spent most of his adult life in New York City and rural Maine, he lived in Boston from 1932 to 1935, studying at a now-closed art school on scholarship. His route to class took him through the Boston Common, where he’d often feed the ducks; that would later become the inspiration for his book.
As exhibit notes explain, McCloskey initially wanted to be a painter, and he won additional scholarships and prizes to continue his studies. But he lost some of those opportunities when World War II began, and he turned instead to children’s books.
May Massee, a children’s book editor in New York and the aunt of one of his high school classmates, suggested he concentrate on things he knew. McCloskey then spent a few years closely studying ducks — he even kept some in his New York apartment — so he could make accurate drawings for his “Ducklings” book.
The story, of course, concerns a “Mr. and Mrs. Mallard” who investigate Boston locales for starting a family. After the couple’s eight little ones are born on an island in the Charles River, Mr. Mallard goes off for a spell, and Mrs. Mallard leads her young charges through downtown Boston, with the help of a policeman who stops traffic for them. Mr. Mallard then rejoins the family in their permanent home in the Public Garden.
Keiter notes that the story had particular resonance in the early 1940s, as many American men went off for military service during WWII, leaving mothers to manage households alone for a number of years.
But what’s so compelling about the art in “Ducklings,” she adds, is the sense of humor and McCloskey’s attention to detail and fine eye: “He was classically trained.”
The exhibit features many of the drawings from the book, done in zinc plate lithography to cut expenses during wartime — which required McCloskey to execute his drawings in reverse.
“Think of what kind of skill that required,” Keiter said.
McCloskey would later work in pen and ink and watercolor, both in his own books and those he illustrated for others, such as “The Man Who Lost His Head” by Claire Huchet Bishop. The Carle show includes drawings from that story, in which the headless man knots his tie in front of a mirror, then later tries to substitute a parsnip for his missing noggin.
The artist had another big success with his 1948 book “Blueberries for Sal,” which celebrated both his young daughter Sally and the family’s summer home on a Maine island. For a sequel story, “One Morning in Maine,” the exhibit includes an early sketch in which McCloskey has shifted the position of his younger daughter, Jane, leaving the impression of her initial stance still visible.
One of the show’s highlights is the art from McCloskey’s second Caldecott winner, 1957’s “Time of Wonder,” in which he swapped his pens and pencils for a paintbrush; the soft watercolors offer an idyllic view of coastal Maine and of nature itself.
That sense of awe, even reverence that McCloskey had for the natural world still radiates from the story, says Keiter, who recalls “Time of Wonder” as one of her favorite books from childhood.
“That to me is one of his most lasting contributions,” she said.
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
“Americana on Parade: The Art of Robert McCloskey” is on view through Oct. 23 at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art at 125 West Bay Road in Amherst. For museum hours, ticket prices and additional information, visit www.carlemuseum.org.