Peter Rabbit: the Tale of the Tale

This display in rooms 88a and 90 reveals how Beatrix Potter conceived her tale of Peter Rabbit in 1893, from his initial appearance in an illustrated letter to a child who was recovering from scarlet fever, to the story's subsequent publication and numerous redesigns over the years. Potter wanted her picture book to be small (to fit a child's hands) and affordable, with a black-and -white illustration on every page to hold the attention of even the youngest reader. At least six publishers rejected the original manuscript; they wanted a larger, more expensive book with colour illustrations, to which Potter remarked 'little rabbits cannot afford to spend six shillings on one book and would never buy it'.