The Painted Pig by Elizabeth Morrow

Lucie Brown Ballantyne (1880-1957), and her brother, Robert Morrow Brown's (1877-1946) mother, Mary Virginia Morrow Brown (c1857-1890) was a sister to James Morrow.

James Morrow's son Dwight (1873-1931) was a businessman, politician and diplomat.  He was a classmate of Calvin Coolidge at Amherst College in the early 1890s, married his college sweetheart Elizabeth Reeve Cutter in 1903, and became a partner in J.P. Morgan and Co., in 1913.  They were parents of four children, including Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

President Coolidge appointed Dwight Morrow Ambassador to Mexico where he served from 1927-1930.

Elizabeth Morrow (1873-1955) of Cleveland, was the daughter of Charles Long Cutter and Annie E. Spencer and was a poet as well as the author of two children's books, one of which, The Painted Pig she signed and inscribed for Jean Ballantyne on October 6, 1930, the year it was published.

Summary: When the toymaker forgets to make him a piggy bank, a young Mexican boy finds some clay and tries to make one of his own. Includes historical notes on Mexican folk art and the author's experiences in Mexico as the wife of the United States ambassador in the 1920s.

From information about the book: This delightful picture book, first published in 1930, was written for children, but as a beautiful evocation of an era of awakening American interest in Mexican art and culture it will appeal to adults as well. The author, Elizabeth Morrow, first went to Mexico in 1927, when her husband, Dwight Morrow, was appointed American ambassador. The story is about a remarkable painted pig with a savings bank manner and a very stylish rosebud tail. The pig belongs to Pita, and is coveted by her younger brother, Pedro. Pancho, “The Toymaker” in the market, promises to make another one, but between the promise and the delivery is a wonderful story-telling journey.
The Painted Pig was inspired by the extraordinary collection of Mexican toys created by the author’s friend René d’Harnoncourt, who illustrated the book.

A facsimile of the first edition, published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2001, includes an introduction by a folklorist who knew Mrs. Morrow when he was a boy and an afterword by two of her granddaughters.

“Color, rhythm and a true understanding of children . . . set this book apart. It is in no way derivative, nor can it be compared with any other book.”—New York Herald Tribune

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The Painted Pig is one of several books in the Uible/Ballantyne vintage book collection which also includes some of Robert Morrow Brown's books from the late 1890s.

The Lindberghs

From Shorpy's Blog here's a picture one of Mother's famous historical couples to which we have a connection and the accompanying words: September 18, 1929. "Lindbergh & wife." Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, four months after they married. View full size. National Photo Company glass negative. Charles, the pioneering aviator, was probably the most famous person in America at the time; Anne would become an accomplished aviator in her own right, as well as one of the best-selling writers of the 20th century. Some three years after this picture was taken, the tragedy of their child's murder helped define the modern phenomenon of mass-media super-celebrity. From Anne's February 2001 obituary in the New York Times: "Nothing, not even Lindbergh's 1927 landing in Paris, had prepared them for the carnival of reporters, photographers, con artists, curiosity-seekers, vandals and crazy people who invaded their lives after their baby was kidnapped. Americans would not experience a similar flood of publicity until the O. J. Simpson murder trial of the 1990s."