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Wing IV · Curator's exhibit

The History of Neverland

How a Scottish writer named J. M. Barrie invented the second star to the right — and gave it away.

Every story on this planet — Peter Pan and Wendy, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee, the Lost Boys, Tinker Bell, Tiger Lily, the Crocodile, the Jolly Roger — was invented by one man. His name was James Matthew Barrie, and he lived a long time ago, in Scotland and in London. This is his story, and the story of how Neverland came to be.

A short filmSir J. M. Barrie, in his own words — how a quiet Scottish boy came to write Peter Pan, and why he gave it away. 92 seconds

A life in eight moments

  1. 1860

    A quiet boy in Scotland

    James Matthew Barrie is born in Kirriemuir, a small weaving town in Scotland. He is the ninth of ten children in a family that reads out loud by the fire every night.

  2. 1867

    A brother who never grew up

    When James is six, his older brother David dies the day before his fourteenth birthday. His mother tells James that David will now be a boy forever. That idea — a boy who never grows up — never leaves him.

  3. 1897

    The Llewelyn Davies boys

    In Kensington Gardens in London, Barrie befriends a family of five brothers — George, Jack, Peter, Michael, and Nicholas. He invents wild bedtime stories for them about pirates, fairies, and an island called Neverland.

  4. 1902

    Peter Pan is first named

    Barrie publishes a grown-up novel called The Little White Bird. Tucked inside it are six chapters about a magical baby who flies out of his nursery and lives with the fairies in Kensington Gardens. His name is Peter Pan.

  5. 1904

    The play opens in London

    On December 27th, Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up opens on stage at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. Peter is played by a woman — Nina Boucicault — a tradition that lasts for a century. The audience gasps when Peter turns to them and asks if they believe in fairies.

  6. 1911

    The book Peter and Wendy

    Seven years after the play opens, Barrie writes the story down as a novel: Peter and Wendy. It gives us the Darling children, Tinker Bell, Captain Hook, the Lost Boys, the Crocodile, Tiger Lily, and the second star to the right — all in one book.

  7. 1929

    The gift to the hospital

    Barrie gives every right to Peter Pan — the play, the book, every future adaptation — to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. Every ticket sold and every book printed still helps sick children today. It is one of the most generous gifts in the history of storytelling.

  8. 1937

    Barrie's last chapter

    J. M. Barrie dies in London at the age of seventy-seven. He is buried in Kirriemuir, next to his brother David — the boy who never grew up, and who started the story that became Neverland.

The Great Ormond Street gift

In 1929, J. M. Barrie signed away every right to Peter Pan — the play, the book, every film, every song, every stage revival — to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. He asked that the exact amount of money the gift raised never be told, so the hospital could keep the number private. Nearly a hundred years later, the hospital still receives a share every time Peter Pan is performed, printed, or streamed. When you watched Peter Pan on any planet on this site, a small piece of that story reached back to a hospital ward full of children.

Peter Pan on stage and screen

Barrie's play has never stopped being performed. Every generation makes a new version. Here are the ones most people know.

  • 1953

    Walt Disney's Peter Pan

    The animated film that put a green cap and a red feather on every child's imagination.

  • 1954

    The Broadway musical

    Mary Martin flies over Broadway as Peter, singing 'I Won't Grow Up.' A televised version reaches sixty-five million American homes.

  • 1991

    Hook

    Steven Spielberg's film asks a grown-up question: what if Peter had grown up, forgotten Neverland, and had to fly again to rescue his own children?

  • 2003

    Peter Pan (live-action)

    P. J. Hogan's film returns to Barrie's book almost line-for-line, with Jason Isaacs playing both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook — a casting tradition that goes back to the 1904 stage.

  • 2004

    Finding Neverland

    The story of Barrie himself, and the Llewelyn Davies boys, and how Peter Pan was born in a London drawing room.

"All children, except one, grow up."— J. M. Barrie, opening line of Peter and Wendy, 1911
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