EXHIBIT : Eh, What’s Up, Culture Fans? It’s Your Cuddly Old Pal Peter : Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History celebrates author Beatrix Potter’s lovable rabbit.

Before Bugs Bunny, Roger Rabbit, Harvey, the Playboy Bunny and maybe even the Easter Bunny (nobody knows when the Easter Bunny showed up--I called the library), there was Peter Rabbit. The work of Beatrix Potter, this wascally wabbit’s literary mom, is featured in an exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History called “The World of Peter Rabbit.” The exhibition, which includes a re-creation of Mr. McGregor’s garden, a Victorian Gallery with Potter memorabilia and drawings, and a Discovery Room for the little ones, will run through the summer.

The rabbit-friendly aura of the place becomes quickly apparent as a kid in a life-sized bunny suit greets visitors outside the 3,600-square-foot Fleischmann Auditorium, which has been transformed into an English country garden from the turn of the century. Lining the entrance are varmint visions of filling fast-food--potted specimens of pelargonium, verbena, alyssum, calendula, snapdragons and that old garden favorite, hydrangea.

First thing inside is Mr. McGregor’s garden, apparently with a direct line to the Miracle-Gro factory. When’s the last time you saw a five-foot cabbage, a beach ball-size turnip or a nine-foot carrot top?

This garden is, of course, where Peter narrowly avoided being the guest of honor at a hoedown. Most rabbits have a peanut-size brain and a one-track mind geared to making more rabbits. That’s life at the bottom of the food chain. Thus, Peter was smart or lucky--and, in any case, quick.

Mr. McGregor’s plot is right near a large hollowed-out tree stump, a perfect rabbit hide-out, now transformed into a play area for the smallest visitors, who generally have trouble keeping it to a mild uproar.

Opposite the garden is a lengthy chronology of Potter’s long life. She died in 1943 at the age of 77, but not before writing and illustrating 23 books, all of which have been reprinted more than 100 times and in a variety of languages, including Icelandic and Japanese. This success enabled Potter to buy a working farm in 1905, then in 1924 a 19,000-acre sheep farm to which she retired happily ever after. There’s a great photo of Potter, the primly dressed Victorian with her pet rabbit, Benjamin Bouncer, on a leash.

Potter wrote the first Peter Rabbit story at age 26 while vacationing in Scotland with her family. She found nothing interesting about Scotland, so she made up a story about a rabbit as part of a letter written to a young boy named Noel Moore.

The first edition of Peter Rabbit came out at the end of 1901 with black-and-white drawings and a print run of 250 copies. Less than a year later, Frederick Warne & Co. printed 8,000 copies of the book featuring Potter’s original watercolors. Why are the books so small? To fit the little hands of her readers, naturally.

Besides painting cute, little, sartorially splendid bunnies, squirrels, hedgehogs, mice and ducks, Potter was an accomplished naturalist who painted the local flora and fauna, including hundreds of varieties of mushrooms, in her English Lake District. A Victorian Gallery contains samples of many of her scientific endeavors.

The Discovery Room features a number of hands-on activities for children, such as a pond where they can fish for soft cuddly animals, using specially designed poles. Halloween comes early for those who wish to try on several critter costumes. A computerized game challenges puzzle lovers to decipher Potter’ secret diary, a feat not accomplished until 1958.

Commemorating “The Tale of Two Bad Mice,” there’s a mouse dollhouse full of sleepy live mice. There are also live bunny rabbits and handout literature available on their proper care.

Outside the Discovery Room, a Victorian playhouse is popular. On the way out, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, a four-foot hedgehog, is doing her laundry.

The is very Santa Barbara, up in the hills with lots of trees. There are blooming Matilija poppies everywhere and Mission Creek runs through the grounds. Head for the Santa Barbara Mission and follow the signs.

Details

* WHAT: “The World of Peter Rabbit.”

* WHERE: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol Road.

* WHEN: Daily until Sept. 5, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

* HOW MUCH: Adults $5, $4 senior citizens and teens, $3 children, free toddlers and infants under 2.

* FYI: 682-4711.