The notebook in which I found this and a number of other drawings by Elmer S. Hill of Haydenville MA was already coming apart with some pages loose, so I went ahead and divided it up and am listing these wonderful drawings individully. This might be my favorite of all, with two perspectives on the fate of this little rabbit—one as it stands beside a rabbit trap, still free, and then behind bars inside the cage, so empathetic!
I have found a definitive record of Elmer Hill, born on 7 March 1874, in Erie, Pennsylvania, United States to David Warren Hill and Annie Pauline Goss, both from New England, and it seems in Erie only for a brief time as the rest of their lives were living in and around Northhampton, MA, including in Haydenville, which he notes on one page of the notebook, which has a date of 1887, so he was about 13 when he made these drawings. Hill married, had two sons, and died on 29 December 1973, in Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States, at the age of 99!
Paper measures 8 1/16” x 6 5/8”; pencil and crayon/colored pencil on faintly lined paper. Paper has darkened a bit over time and is a bit brittle, but shows no foxing and is generally clean and very stable. Blank reverse.
