Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art is a museum devoted to the art of the picture book and especially the children's book. It is a member of Museums10 and is adjacent to the campus of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. The Carle was founded by Eric and Barbara Carle, and designed by Juster Pope Frazier Architects. Together with his wife Barbara (1938-2015), Eric Carle, the author and illustrator of more than 70 books, including the 1969 classic "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", founded the museum. It was the first full-scale museum in
Eric, or, Little by Little book is credited with helping to increase the popularity of the first name "Eric" in English-speaking countries — although not with Eric Arthur Blair (the writer and journalist George Orwell) who disliked his given name because of its association with Farrar's book. In later years, it fell out of favour, in part because of its religious earnestness. For example, in Rudyard Kipling's "Stalky & Co.", published late in 1899, the protagonist Beetle and his friends frequently made fun of "Eric", e.g. E. Nesbit included it in a list of didactic children's books which were "impossible to read." Eric, or, Little