Mr Squiggle enters National Museum of Australia

Mr Squiggle and Friends are being showcased by the National Museum of Australia.

The ABC’s Mr Squiggle and Friends first appeared on the small screen in 1959 but would last until 1999.

With a pencil for a nose, the character of Mr Squiggle would delight children by turning the “squiggles” he would be sent from around the country into pictures, all with the help of his friend Blackboard.

The creation of Norman Hetherington, a donated collection comprises the puppets themselves, the scripts for the show and even some of the squiggles sent in by adoring young fans.

Hetherington also voiced all of the puppets on the show — Blackboard, Bill Steamshovel, Gus the Snail and Rocket — while his wife, Margaret wrote the scripts.

Their daughter Rebecca, became presenter in the 1990s as “Miss Rebecca.'”

“A lot of young people talk about the fact that Mr Squiggle helped them to pick up a pencil and just start drawing,” she told ABC.

“My father loved that because he didn’t want to be didactic about how you drew … you just needed to let your imagination take you wherever it led.”

The National Museum of Australia had been in negotiations with the Hetherington family for a number of years to acquire the collection.

Ms Hetherington said her father, who died in 2010, would be “humbled” and “really excited” by the fact his life’s work had been picked up by the museum.

Saying goodbye to the characters had been sad, but she was glad they would be looked after in perpetuity by museum curators, and shared with generations of Australian children to come.

A small display, including Mr Squiggle and Rocket, is now on show at the National Museum of Australia until May 16.

Curators hope a larger display will be ready for the public to see midway through next year after they have completed the “massive task” of documenting the collection.