Mary had a Little Lamb

Story

Mary Had a Little Lamb tells the story of a little girl named Mary and her pet lamb, who follows her to school one day, much to the excitement of her school friends and the chagrin of her teacher.

Why we chose it

Mary Had A Little Lamb featured in the nursery rhyme room in our Time for Bed exhibition. The lamb appears on Helen Cooper’s nursery rhyme mural, painted for Time for Bed, which can now be seen in Small Worlds.

Where it came from

The rhyme was written by Sarah Josepha Hale in 1830, and is said to have been inspired by an actual event. Mary Sawyer was a little girl Hale taught in Massachusetts. One day, Mary brought in a tiny lamb that had been abandoned by its mother. When Hale sent the lamb outside, it waited patiently until Mary finished school and trotted along home beside her.

Hale (1788-1879) was an American writer. Alongside her nursery rhymes, she also wrote novels including Northwood, or Life North and South, in which she wrote of uniting the northern and southern states and abolishing slavery. She was also a prolific magazine writer and editor, and edited Godey’s Lady’s Book for 40 years. She focused almost entirely on writing submitted by American women and was a campaigner for women’s causes.

Where it went next

Later in the 1830s, Lowell Mason set it to a tune and altered the words slightly to make it more lyrical. It was the first audio recorded by Thomas Edison on his phonograph in 1877. A number of films have been made of it, including shorts in 1903 and 1912, and many TV programmes have produced episodes either inspired by it or named after it, including Thomas the Tank Engine in an episode named Toby Had a Little Lamb.

Associated stories

Illustrator Jarvis created a picture book version in 2019 which introduces us to Mary’s orange tiger, yellow hippo, and blue bears, who all play with Mary and her white lamb.

Lambs and sheep are often found in nursery rhymes and stories. Little Bo Peep has lost sheep and Little Boy Blue has fallen asleep while looking after them. Picture books include Marvin Wanted More by Joseph Theobald and One More Sheep by Mij Kelly and Russell Ayto. The ever-popular Shaun the Sheep, first seen in the Wallace and Gromit adventure A Close Shave (Aardman Animation, 1995) is now the star of his own films and TV show.