Before the advent of global jet travel and the relentless imagery of television, children’s everyday lives were simpler and much more restricted. Their world consisted of their immediate family, their own backyard and perhaps the neighboring village. Book illustrations expanded their imaginations and reinforced moral, behavioral, and educational goals. Since books were expensive and editions limited, the earliest children’s illustrations were those shared by the family. Bible stories, fables, folklore - all considered necessary for what minimal education children needed. Although imagination was not a gift parents typically sought to cultivate, during the 19th century children’s illustrations began to show simple and attractive designs and figures that could hold a child’s attention (i.e. images of children their own age, baby animals, familiar settings like a garden, kitchen, or a farm). The great age of children’s illustrations emerged at the end of the 19th century. Kate Greenaway’s Apple Pie Alphabet in 1885, Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit appeared in 1904, and Cecily Barker’s first Flower Fairies emerged in 1917-1918. Because parents were suspicious of anything that would move children from being seen and not heard, the more imaginatively written stories were often initially published in limited or private editions and given to people whose patronage would enhance sales of the commercial edition when it appeared later that year. These trial editions were usually printed on letter paper with nine colors, which provided the same colors, only richer. Both these first or limited editions and the early commercial editions have collectable interest and value. After the 1920’s the size of the editions and the decreasing quality of printing give children’s illustrations more of a decorative rather than intrinsic value.