♪♪ Woman: Let's see.

Dana: Children's books are some of the best and most powerful writing.

They are full of magic and possibilities.

You're learning how to read at the same time you're being introduced to concepts and ideas and morals and creativity.

Woman: And what is this one?

Dana: This beautiful collection of children's books, manuscripts, educational objects was bequeathed by Lloyd Cotsen, who was Princeton Class of '50.

He stipulated that he wanted a public gallery for children to come and explore their love of literacy.

Lloyd: I guess one of the things that excites me, that turns me on, is to see somebody grasp something or come to terms with something, especially young, and it's like the light bulb lights up.

Corinna: When you're growing up, you don't realize that your father is different than everyone else.

We didn't have a color TV, so we'd sit on the floor.

My father would sit in a chair.

We'd eat popcorn, and he would tell Greek myths.

He went into business with his father-in-law, a company called Neutrogena.

Lyssa: Lloyd Cotsen was the marketing genius behind the Neutrogena brand, and then he became the CEO, but he never stopped doing the things that he loved.

He was so much fun.

♪♪ Andrea: When I first met Lloyd, it was in the Neutrogena offices, and he swooped in.

He sat down on the edge of the desk, and he stuck out his hand, and he said, "Hi.

I'm Lloyd."

Ha ha!

Next to his desk was a dentist's chair.

That was a little test to see if people would actually go and sit in the chair or would they go sit on the couch, which was about 8 feet away from the desk.

♪♪ The children's book collection started as a family library that Mr. Cotsen and his wife put together for their children.

Lloyd: I think reading, to me, was like opening the window there and allowed you to look out and maybe fly out.

If you couldn't fly, your mind could fly.

Andrea: This is a special book in the collection.

It has the family bookplate.

Mrs. Cotsen annotated it with the place they bought it and the date.

♪♪ The collection just grew exponentially.

He traveled so much on business, we knew when he came back, there would be bags and bags and bags of new books.

Lloyd: I do it because I have a good time.

You know, I go in the bookstore, and the lady says, "Should I wrap it for your child or your grandchildren?"

and I said, "I am the child."

♪♪ Andrea: You can think of this book collection as a huge repository from different countries and traditions of how adults think children will learn best.

♪♪ Dana: The wall of books was actually Lloyd Cotsen's idea.

He wanted a rare books vault on the other side of glass so that families, teachers, librarians who came in would see the rare books, five centuries' worth.

It's a way to show them history.

Andrea: This is one of the collection's greatest treasures.

It's a scrapbook that Hans Christian Andersen and his friend Alfred Drewdsen made for Alfred's daughter in 1848.

This is the title page, and it has Andersen's paper cutting.

He would often tell a story while he cut them.

Dana: "Read to Tiger."

"I sit down on the couch and open my book, "but I can't read because I hear, 'Grr grr grr grr grr grr.'

"I can't read my book because there's a tiger behind my couch pretending to be a bear."

Today, this is our story time for three- to five-year-olds where we read a picture book... "Then he jumps..." and then we do a very creative project that is related to the book.

♪♪ It puts the book right in your hands to then recreate on your own and take home.

♪♪ We did a box tiger... Woman: Look at him!

Dana: that cradles its own book, and inside this tiny, little book, kids could draw or write their favorite things.

♪♪ We have a saying-- "Hands on, minds on" because play is learning.

Play is the giant building block of everything.

Lloyd: What do we want to give our children?

I would want them to have a sense of curiosity.

I think that's the inheritance I would like to pass on.

♪♪