Juliana Horatia Ewing

Twelve of the books in the Queen’s Treasures Series – almost half of the titles – were authored by Juliana Horatia Ewing (née Gatty, 1841–1885), an English writer of children’s stories. She was inspired into writing by her mother, who was also a children’s author (and one of her mother’s books also appears in the Queen’s Treasures series, Parables from Nature). Several of Juliana’s short stories were published in the journal Aunt Judy’s Magazine, edited by her mother and herself, which was titled after Juliana’s nickname and sold to raise needed family funds.

Juliana’s writings are known for their admiration for all things military (her husband was an army major), her strong religious faith (her father was a vicar), and for their sympathetic insight into family life, particularly from a child’s perspective (despite having no children of her own, she educated her siblings and established and ran a village library). 

Juliana’s work was highly regarded at the time by contemporaries such as Edith Nesbit and Mary Louisa Molesworth, with Rudyard Kipling writing in his autobiography that he knew Six to Sixteen (a diary-like sketch of domestic life) “almost by heart”. Her story The Brownies (in which a tailor’s idle sons learn to be helpful and are mistaken for Scottish spirits that complete household chores) gave the Baden-Powells the idea and the name for the junior level of the Girl Guides. And her tale Story of a Short Life which is included in the book Jackanapes, inspired Grace Kimmins to start the Guild of the Brave Poor Things to help children with disabilities in London.

M. V. Wheelhouse

More than half of the books in the series (15 of 26) were illustrated by Yorkshire-born artist and toy maker Mary Vermuyden Wheelhouse (1867-1947). Mary won a book illustration competition in London organised by The Bookman early in her career, which led to several commissions and a long-term collaboration with publisher George Bell. Her work has been particularly associated with interpretations of the works of woman writers because of this series, including Louisa M. Alcott and Elizabeth Gaskell as well as Juliana Ewing. Mary was also well known as a toy-maker (supplying the royal family) and was active in the women’s suffrage movement (helping to found the Artists’ Suffrage League in 1907)..

George Bell & Sons

George Bell & Sons was founded by George Bell in 1839 as an educational book supplier for university presses based in London. In the 1850s George ventured into children’s literature, publishing the work of Margaret Gatty, and later that of her daughter, Juliana Horatia Ewing, as part of the Queen’s Treasures series, and the firm became best known as an independent publisher of classics and children’s books.

Bell’s sons, Edward and Ernest, managed the firm after George’s retirement, and later Edward’s son Arthur took over in 1926. Robin Philip Hyman became the managing director in 1977, changing the name to Bell & Hyman, until it merged with George Allen & Unwin to form Unwin Hyman in 1986, before being acquired by HarperCollins in 1990.