ON EGGS-HIBIT: Nancy Willard’s Bread Loaf Eggs
Nancy Willard (1936 - 2017) was an author, poet, and teacher, best known for her children’s books. During Willard’s time at Bread Loaf during the 1980s and 90s, she asked fellow faculty, attendees, and guests to sign wooden eggs. This EGGS-HIBIT is a collection of nearly three dozen hand painted and decorated eggs, themed around each signatory and their work, paired with a corresponding literary work. The books have been pulled primarily from Special Collections’ Julian W. Abernethy Collection of American Literature.
In 2020, Willard’s son, James Lindbloom, sent these precious eggs to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Lindbloom writes in his donation letter:
In addition to her writing, my mother created a lot of handmade objects. One of her passions, from the late 80s through the mid 90s or so, was getting people – mostly well known people – to sign wooden eggs, which she would then elaborately decorate. I’m in the process of cleaning out the family home, and finding so many of these – much more than I imagined. … She got signed eggs from a fair amount of Bread Loaf colleagues over the years, and I’ve gathered as many I could find in this box for you.
As James alluded, there are many, many more eggs. Willard began this project while she was an English professor at Vassar College and had many visiting artists (and other influential people) sign eggs. In December 2024, a set of approximately 120 eggs were sold at auction for $7,000. The auction description notes these eggs are “a personal reminder of some of the people who were a part of [Willard’s] life” and they have never been displayed publicly.
Two years ago, I had the opportunity to catalog our collection of these eggs shortly after they arrived in Special Collections (I wrote a blog post about it). This semester, I have had a wonderful time revisiting the eggs. I researched each signatory to understand their work and relationship to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (BLWC). I selected books mainly from Special Collections’ Abernethy Collection that well-represented the decorations, colors, and themes Willard chose to place on each egg. Likely, these now-published books are what each egg signatory was working on while they were at the BLWC. It is so neat to see Willard’s interpretation of a poem, a collection of poems, or a novel represented in visual egg form.
In putting together this exhibit, David Howard Bain’s Whose Woods These Are: A History of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 1926-1992 (1993) was an incredibly helpful resource in learning BLWC history and locating photographs in the archive. Mikaela Taylor was also a great support in brainstorming, design help, and proofreading.
From Marvin Bell to Hilma Wolitzer, each egg Willard created is a unique treasure. The collection offers a creative reflection on the importance of Bread Loaf in many influential writers’ lives and works. The eggs are on display now in the Davis Family Library atrium in celebration of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference 2026 centennial.
For further reading, check out:
- Nancy Willard, Prolific Children’s Book Author, Dies at 80
- The Nancy Willard and Eric Lindbloom Archives
- Hindman Auctions — “Nancy Willard Collection of Painted and Decorated Eggs”
- PBA Galleries — “Willard Collection of Eggs Signed by Literary Greats”
And, please follow Special Collections on Instagram!
Liefe Temple is a joint English and Dance major from the class of 2025.5. In her 4 years at Middlebury, she has worked in the library departments of Special Collections, Interlibrary Loan, Circulation, and Collections Management at Davis Family Library and Davison Library at Bread Loaf.