It’s the party to end all parties, old sport! To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of “The Great Gatsby” this April, Princeton University Library held a suite of on- and off-campus programming inspired by the library’s significant F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Great Gatsby” related holdings. The Cotsen Children’s Library joined the festivities with our own event full of frivolity and splendor with a decidedly feline twist. We called it…“The Great Catsby!”
We don’t normally do decor at our events, but we we couldn’t resist decking the gallery out with dazzling gold tinsel and Art Deco photo backdrops. Luckily, “Gatsby” is a popular prom theme, so there was no shortage of inexpensive resources to choose from.
As some of you may have already guessed, the gold tinsel almost stole the entire show. Kids ran through it, swatted it, wore it as hair, and sat quietly with it tickling their faces. They also pulled it out in handfuls and threw it all over the gallery. It was a total mess after the event, and we’re still finding strands of tinsel in the library, but it was worth it!
At the back of the gallery, amidst strains of period jazz music, was cat mask decorating. We offered metallic markers, gold leaves, twisteez wire, stickers, glitter shapes, tiny bows, self-adhesive jewels, feathers, and metallic paper. There were three types of white paper masks to choose from. The most popular by far was the full cat face:
We also offered a smaller, more focused art activity elsewhere in the gallery – coloring sheets that featured the work of British artist Louis Wain, who was popular during the Gatsby era! Wain became famous for his drawings of cats depicted with human-like appearance and behavior, and we pulled images from our special collections to share with the community.
If you’d like to try the Louis Wain coloring sheets yourself (and others from our collections), visit Coloring Cotsen, our coloring sheet central!
For the adventurous, we ran a “Literary Cats Scavenger Hunt” in the gallery during the event. Kids were invited to find 10 page-famous cats: The Cat in the Hat, The Cheshire Cat, Crookshanks, Felix, Garfield, Hobbes, Pete, Puss in Boots, Skippyjon Jones, and Tigger. There was also a cameo appearance of Zelda Fitzgerald’s kitty, Chopin.
It was interesting to see which literary cats kids were familiar with, and which ones completely stumped them. The two most recognized were The Cat in Hat and Hobbes, and the two least recognized were Felix and Crookshanks.
Speaking of familiar cats, we thought it would be fun to ask library staff to submit portraits for a “Match the Librarian to Their Cat” game. Hint: staff wore their cat’s colors, and even hilariously replicated their poses and expressions.
Our Great Catsby event was also a cat food drive to benefit SAVE, our local animal shelter and all around wonderful organization! Founded in 1941, SAVE is a non-profit that strives to shelter, foster, heal, and re-home dogs and cats.
What can we say? It was a PARTY! The Great Catsby was light, lively, festive, and fun. Best of all, SAVE shelter was gifted lots of cat food for kitties waiting for their forever homes!
Many thanks to staff members Maria Gorbunova, Morgan Kirkpatrick, Hilary Murusmith, Lisa Read, Emma Sarconi, Dana Sheridan, Eric White, and feline friends Beatrix, Benny, Cleo, George, Saoirse, Sneeze and Qalilaan for participating in the matching game!
Blog artwork by WildmenagerieArt
In terms of accessories, our treat jars were old film canisters, the balls were leftover from our Willy Wonka 
Kids waited outside the shelter while Katie asked them the following questions…
And now, an incredibly sweet coincidence…one little girl selected a cat from the big box of Beanies. She selected the VERY same version of the Beanie Baby kitty that had been her mom’s lovie so many years before. As the lovie was in storage, the little girl couldn’t have possibly known it was the twin to her mom’s. But she picked the very one.
We also decided to add a carrying handle to our castle, so our towers are hot glued slightly to the front of the box. The handle is a 1.75″ x 16″ poster board strip that pivots on 2 
Finally, the CATS. These are variously-sized toilet paper and paper towel tubes decorated with construction paper. We used self-adhesive foam bits and 
To play the game, place your castle on the floor, and then try to toss all the cats into the box. The more cats that land in the box, the more likely the last few will bounce out, so warning…a major case of the giggles may occur!