The Three Bears

This pamphlet introduced American children to the story of "The Three Bears." Published by Hurd and Houghton (New York, 1851), the work replicates a British issue of 1849–50 illustrated by Harrison Weir. Two decades later the American artist Seymour Guy included an image of the pamphlet in his painting "The Story of Golden Locks" (2013.604) where it lies open in the lap of a girl who recounts the tale to wide-eyed younger siblings.

Robert Southey introduced British readers to "The Three Bears" in 1837 as part of a longer narrative titled "The Doctor." In that version the protagonist is an old woman. Joseph Cundall's "Treasury of Pleasure Books for Children" (1850) instead centers the story on a lttle girl named Silver-hair, and she retains that name in this 1851 pamphlet. The key elements of the story were thus established, although it took several more decades before the girl became Golden Locks, then finally the modern Goldilocks.