November 05, 2021

eBotanical Prints – November 2021

November 05, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

20 botanical print books browsed in October and added to the list. The browsing seemed to clump by topic and some series. There were 2 volumes about plant fossils, 2 about flower/plant art, 2 books about apples, 5 about the flora of Austria (from the 1770s) 5 about flora around London from the same time period, and 2 about the grasses of Iowa. Both the apple and grasses volumes were from the early 1900s; I wondered how many of the varieties in these publications still exist. Overall – a lot of variety in the October 2021 books.

The whole list of 2,249 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the October books is at the end of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the October eBotanical Prints!

Atlas to the coal flora of Pennsylvania, and of the carboniferous formation throughout the United States * Lesquereaux, Leo * sample image * 1879

The Palæontological report : as prepared for the Geological report of Kentucky * Lesquereaux, Leo * sample image * 1857

Lessons in Flower Painting * Andrews, James * sample image * 1836

Sketchbook on pines and cactus * Roetter, Paulus * sample image * 1848

Art forms in nature : examples from the plant world photographed direct from nature * Blossfeldt, Karl * sample image * 1929

The bamboo garden * Freemon-Mitford, Algernon Bertram * sample image * 1896

The Apples of New York V1 * Beach, Spencer Ambrose; Booth, Nathaniel Ogden; Taylor, Orrin Morehouse * sample image * 1905

The Apples of New York V2 * Beach, Spencer Ambrose; Booth, Nathaniel Ogden; Taylor, Orrin Morehouse * sample image * 1905

Florae Austriacae V1 * Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Scheidl, Franz Anton von (illustrator) * sample image * 1773

Florae Austriacae V4 * Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Scheidl, Franz Anton von (illustrator) * sample image * 1776

Florae Austriacae V2 * Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Scheidl, Franz Anton von (illustrator) * sample image * 1774

Florae Austriacae V3 * Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Scheidl, Franz Anton von (illustrator) * sample image * 1775

Florae Austriacae V5 * Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Scheidl, Franz Anton von (illustrator) * sample image * 1778

Flora Londinensis - V1 * Curtis, William et al * sample image * 1777

Flora Londinensis - V2 * Curtis, William et al * sample image * 1777

Flora Londinensis - V3 * Curtis, William et al * sample image * 1777

Flora Londinensis - V4 * Curtis, William et al * sample image * 1777

Flora Londinensis - V5 * Curtis, William et al * sample image * 1777

The grasses of Iowa V1 * Pammel, Louis Hermann; Weems, Julius Buel; Lamson-Schribner, F. * sample image * 1901

The grasses of Iowa V2 * Pammel, Louis Hermann; Ball, Carleton R.; Lamson-Schribner, F. * sample image * 1904

October 29, 2021

Art and Archaeology – An Illustrated Magazine

October 29, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

There are 11 volumes of the Art and Archaeology magazine from 1914-1923 available on Internet Archive; it was published in Baltimore. Most of the illustrations are black and white photographs but there are occasional color ones. I enjoyed finding pictures that looked familiar…and realizing how long some of the places and artifacts have been featured in magazines: the Aztec and Maya from Central America; buildings in Greece and Italy and Spain and France from Europe; Egypt, Babylon, and Petra from the Middle East; the desert Southwest and Lincoln of the US….and these are just what is represented in the 2 sample images I picked from each volume. Some of the places are probably a bit more worn from tourists and damaged by air pollution 100 years later…some have been restored. Maybe I will do a side by side look at some historical pictures of a place I visit (when I start doing that kind of traveling again).

I hope that more of volumes of this magazine become available as the copyright expires; it was published into the 1930s. For now – enjoy the sample images below by clicking through the 22 images…or go to the volumes directly by following the 11 links.

V1 (1914-1915), V2 (1915), V3 (1916-1), V4 (1916-2), V5 (1917), V7 (1918), V9-10 (1920), V11-12 (1921), V13-14 (1922), V15 (1923 - 1), V16 (1923 -2)

October 22, 2021

Hildegarde Hawthorne on Internet Archive

October 22, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

Hildegarde Hawthorne was the granddaughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne and a writer as well. I found 6 of her books on Internet Archive from the early 1900s – easy to browse. She lived until 1952 and continued writing so there are probably others that will become available as their copyright expires. The last one is probably my favorite.

Girls in Bookland

Old Seaport Towns of New England with illustrations by John Albert Seaford

Rambles in old college towns with illustrations by John Albert Seaford. The second picture below is the library tower at Cornell; it’s surrounded by more buildings now…I remember it from my daughter’s undergraduate days.

The Fairest of the Fair

New York with illustrations by Lewis Martin

The Lure of the Garden

October 08, 2021

eBotanical Prints – September 2021

October 08, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

21 botanical print books browsed in September and added to the list. They were published over almost 300 years (1793 to 1981). The most recent volumes are documentation of threatened and endangered species. The earliest (Icones plantarum rariorum - Vol 3, sample image) was a volume from a series I had found before – but somehow missed this volume. There were some beautiful illustrations of plants I’m familiar with: tulip poplar, jack-in-the-pulpit, deciduous magnolia, maples, oaks, holly. There were also two volumes of plant imprints…geological botanical prints. I found several volumes that were fruit focused…more to come of those finds in October. Overall – a lot of variety in the September 2021 volumes.

The whole list of 2,229 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the September books is at the end of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the September eBotanical Prints!

Plantae novae vel minus cognitae ex herbario Horti Thenensis V1 * Wildeman, Emile de * sample image * 1904

Plantae novae vel minus cognitae ex herbario Horti Thenensis V2 * Wildeman, Emile de * sample image * 1908

Les phanérogames des terres magellaniques * Wildeman, Emile de * sample image * 1905

Threatened and endangered plants of Nevada : an illustrated manual * Mozingo Hugh Nelson * sample image * 1981

Illustrated manual of proposed endangered and threatened species of Utah * Welsh, Stanley; Thorne, K. H. * sample image * 1979

Aquatic plants of Illinois; an illustrated manual including species submersed, floating, and some of shallow water and muddy shores * Winterringer, Glen Spelman; Lopinot, Alvin C. * sample image * 1966

Budding Life: a book of drawings * King, Jessie M. * sample image * 1907

The century supplement to the dictionary of gardening, a practical and scientific encyclopaedia of horticulture for gardeners and botanists * Nicholson, George * sample image * 1901

Pomologie française : recueil des plus beaux fruits cultivés en France V1 * Poiteau, Antoine; Turpin, Pierre Jean Francois * sample image * 1846

Pomologie française : recueil des plus beaux fruits cultivés en France V2 * Poiteau, Antoine; Turpin, Pierre Jean Francois * sample image * 1846

Icones plantarum rariorum - Vol 3 * Jacquin, Nicolao Josepho * sample image * 1793

The family flora and materia medica botanica V1 * Good, Peter Peyto * sample image * 1847

The family flora and materia medica botanica V2 * Good, Peter Peyto * sample image * 1847

Garden trees and shrubs illustrated in colour * Wright, Walter Page * sample image * 1913

Experimental pollination; an outline of the ecology of flowers and insects * Clements, Frederic Edward; Long, Francis Louise * sample image * 1923

Minnesota trees and shrubs : an illustrated manual of the native and cultivated woody plants of the State * Clements, Frederic Edward; Butters, Frederick King; Rosendahl, Carl Otto * sample image * 1912

Botanical and palaeontological report on the Geological State Survey of Arkansas * Lesquereux, Leo * sample image * 1860

The flora of the Dakota group, a posthumous work * Lesquereux, Leo * sample image * 1891

The nurseryman's pocket specimen book : colored from nature : fruits, flowers, ornamental trees, shrubs, roses, &c * Dewey, Dellon Marcus (publisher) * sample image * 1872

A report on the trees and shrubs growing naturally in the forests of Massachusetts V1 * Emerson, George Barrell * sample image * 1846

A report on the trees and shrubs growing naturally in the forests of Massachusetts V2 * Emerson, George Barrell * sample image * 1894

September 30, 2021

Studio International

September 30, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

I browsed 51 volumes of the Studio International magazines published from 1896 to 1922 over the past month or so. It was a time when the world was changing rapidly – modernizing through industrialization and the World War I years with the 1918 flu overlaying on that challenge. The volumes between 1917 and 1922 are missing. The 1920s were a frenzy of new fashions and cultural shifts. The magazines are a contemporaneous perspective of the time.

I selected an image from each volume I browsed which are in the grid below – time sequenced; I selected color images but there are more that are pencil sketches or black/white photographs…and more architecture. The volumes are well worth browsing; links to the volumes are below the grid of images. To enlarge any image below, clink on the image in the grid.

1896-1897, 1897-1898, 1899-1, 1899 -2, 1900-1901, 1901, 1901-2, 1902-1903, 1902-2, 1902-3, 1903, 1904, 1904-1, 1904-2, 1905, 1905-1, 1905 -2, 1905 -3, 1906-1, 1906-2, 1907-1, 1907-2, 1907-3, 1908 -1, 1908 -2, 1908 -3, 1909-2, 1909-3, 1909 -1, 1910-1, 1910-2, 1910-3, 1911-1, 1911-2, 1911-3, 1912-1, 1912-3, 1913-1, 1913-2, 1913-3, 1914-1, 1914-2, 1915-1, 1915-2, 1915-3, 1916-2, 1917-1, 1917-2, 1917-3, 1922-1, 1922-2

September 24, 2021

Designs of Kyoto: a collection of design for silk and cotton textiles

September 24, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

The two volumes of Designs of Kyoto: a collection of designs for silk and cotton textiles (volume 1 and volume 2) were published in 1906 and are available on Internet Archive. I’ve selected 2 sample images from both volumes.

I enjoyed the books – lots of nature themes and ideas for Zentangle patterns. Some of them looked very abstract – geometric – hits of realism. There is a modern quality to many even though they are more than 100 years old. Maybe nature images are timeless as long as the animal/plant depicted still exists in our world.

Silk and cotton are luxuries now – the inexpensive fabrics are synthetic creating a lot of ‘fast fashion’ with interesting fabric patterns….like these.

September 17, 2021

Arts and Decoration from 1920s and 1930s

September 17, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

Over the past couple of months – I browsed through 29 volumes of the Arts and Decoration Magazine from the 1920s and 1930s. There are a few color images – dominated by covers and ads. I enjoyed thinking about the history and mood of the times reflected in these periodicals.

In the 1920s – Some company names we still see today show up – Davey Tree Surgeons, Listerine, Armstrong Floors, Heinz, Lincoln, Cadillac; some ads for companies that no longer exist too: Quaker Lace Company, Oil-o-matic Heat, Insulite, Johns-Manville Asbestos Shingles. The depictions of women were changing just as the clothes they were wearing: less constrained. The magazine reflected the quickening pace and almost euphoric mood of the decade. 1923 (vol 18-19), 1923 (vol 19-20), 1924 (vol 20-21), 1924 (vol 21-22), 1925 (vol 22-23), 1925 (vol 23-24), 1926 (vol 24-25), 1926 (vol 25-26), 1927 (vol 26-27), 1927 (vol 27-28), 1928 (vol 28-29), 1928 (vol 29-30), 1929 (vol 30-31), 1929 (vol 31-32)

And then came the crash in the 1930s. The volumes from the 1930s contain less color – except for the covers. Most advertisers were weathering the Great Depression but not paying for color ads – except for Kenwood Blankets and a steamship company. The magazine was depicting the perspective of the wealthy but even they were not as flamboyant and exuberant as in the earlier decade. This was the decade when my parents were born. They were far from scenes depicted in the magazine…living in the middle of the US in rural areas where they had plenty of food their parents grew on their farms. 1930(vol 32-33), 1930(vol 33-34), 1931(vol 34-35), 1931(vol 35-36), 1932(vol 36-37), 1932(vol 37-38), 1933(vol 38-39), 1933(vol 39-40), 1934(vol 40-41), 1934(vol 41-42), 1935(vol 42-43), 1935(vol 43-44), 1936(vol 44-45), 1936(vol 45-46), 1937(vol 44-47)

Browsing magazines is a perspective of the important things of the day – carefully selected by editors to present to their subscribers. It reflects a narrow perspective – probably: wealthy, white, skewed to the east and west coasts. It would be interesting to know the demographics of the subscribers but maybe even the publishes didn’t know that!

September 10, 2021

Christmas depicted in Better Homes and Gardens (1951-2003)

September 10, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

This summer I browsed all the Better Homes and Gardens available via Internet Archive; they are available in volumes of 6 issues each for most years from the 1950s through the early 2000s. It was fascinating to observe the changes in interior decorating, architecture, and food across the decades – and I picked up some ideas for my own home (some ideas have a timeless quality!). I picked the theme of Christmas (i.e. December issues) across the years to feature in this post. The links are for the July-December months of each year.

1950s. Pecans and walnuts were popular additions to Christmas goodies in the 1950s; perhaps they were still expensive enough to not be used throughout the year…unless you had your own trees. Evidently amaryllis bulbs and caladiums were also part of the December décor.

1951, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959

1960s. I have lots of memories of Christmases in the 1960s. I don’t remember every seeing a Marshmallow Men cake…but I do remember the large and small marshmallows…..and homemade luminaries. I remember artificial trees of different shapes. I am surprised that there weren’t pictures of the large colored lights on any of the trees in the pictures.

1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969

1970s. By the mid-70s, I had married and set up my own household. I made the bird pattern from the 1977 issue of my mother’s copy of Better Homes and Gardens in red and white felt with glittery red rickrack and red beads (and still have them). In the 1970s those were the colors of all the ornaments on my artificial tree (we did to a tree farm one year to cut down our own tree).

1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979

1980s. The 80s ushered in the tiny lights. Special foods were more decadent than ever. We moved away from where we’d grown up in pursuit of our careers in the middle of the decade and had our daughter near the end of it.

1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989

1990s. For us, the 90s included a major shift in our Christmas decorations in 1995; my daughter picked a white Christmas artificial tree for us (she was in 1st grade). Surprisingly all our ornaments still looked good on the new tree – but we did replace all our green wired lights with white wired sets. The look of the tree was very different than the dark green from before. One of my sisters made a pinecone wreath for us and I have refreshed it several times over the years. From the Better Homes and Gardens pictures – it seems the trend was toward decorations that were a little different – even though they might have some aspects from before. I wonder if the tree decorated with hearts and bows was intended to stay in place until Valentines in February.

1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999

2000s. The last of the Better Homes and Gardens available on Internet Archive are from early in the decade. We had a very similar light tree to the one in the last picture; it was frustrating that it didn’t last longer – once it broke it was trash (not recyclable at all) so we have not bought another.

2000, 2001, 2002, 2003

September 03, 2021

eBotanical Prints – August 2021

September 03, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

21 botanical print books in August and added to the list. There is quite an age range in this group. The first 10 are from the early 1900s and are a continuation of the Jakob Sturm series I started browing in July. . The rest were published earlier; one is quite old – back to 1625!

There is something to enjoy in the botanical illustrations in all these volumes. I admire the meticulous detail recorded throughout the years, the colors that have remained vibrant for over 100 years, and the perseverance it must have taken for the authors to create and then publish their works.

The whole list of 2,209 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the August books is at the end of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the August eBotanical Prints!

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 5 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1901

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 6 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1902

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 7 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1902

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 8 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1902

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 9 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1901

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 10 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1903

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 11 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1903

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 12 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1904

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 13 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1905

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 14 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1905

De frvctibvs et seminibvs plantarvm V2 * Gaertner, Joseph; Sturm, J.G. * sample image * 1788

Flore d'Amérique, dessinée d'après nature sur les lieux * Denisse, Etienne * sample image * 1843

Flore d'Amerique : dediée à la Société Linnéenne de Bordx. * Denisse, Etienne * sample image * 1835

Coloured figures of English fungi or mushrooms * Sowerby, James * sample image * 1797

Descriptio et adumbratio microscopico - analytica muscorum frondosorum - nec non aliorum vegetantium V 1-2 * Hedwig, Johannes * sample image * 1787

Fvndamentvm historiae natvralis mvscorvm frondosorvm concernens eorvm flores frvetes, seminalem propagationem, adiecta genervm dispositione methodica V 1-2 * Hedwig, Johannes * sample image * 1782

Exactissima descriptio rariorum quarundam plantarum, que continentur Rome in Horto Farnesiano * Aldini, Tobia; Castelli, Pietro * sample image * 1625

Horti academici Lugduno-Batavi catalogus : exhibens plantarum omnium nomina, quibus ab anno MDCLXXXI ad annum MDCLXXXVI hortus fuit instructus ut & plurimarum in eodem cultarum & à nemine hucusque editarum descriptiones & icones * Hermann, Paul * sample image * 1687

Botanica curiosa oder Nützliche Anmerckungen, wie einige frembde Kräuter und Blumen * Stisser, Johann Andreas * sample image * 1697

Hortus Herrenhusanus - seu Plantae rariores quae in Horto Regio Herrenhusano prope Hannoveram coluntur * Wendland, Johann Christoph * sample image * 1798

Botanische Beobachtungen : nebst einigen neuen Gattungen und Arten * Wendland, Johann Christoph * sample image * 1798

August 27, 2021

Some other Frances Hodgson Burnett books (with illustrations)

August 27, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

I remember Francis Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (1911) and A Little Princess (1905) from my childhood. She wrote many more books over the course of a relatively long writing career….doing well enough to support her family, travel, and own several homes. Several books that she wrote around the same time as those books are available from Internet Archive and I browsed them recently.

The Cozy Lion: as told by Queen Crosspatch (1912)

Racketty-Packetty House (1906)

The Spring Cleaning – as told by Queen Crosspatch (1911)

None of these three are as enduring as the The Secret Garden – but they are examples of what books for children were like during that period. I found myself wondering if any of my grandparents – would have seen these books. I don’t think they would have; the families were farmers and barely making enough to keep families housed, clothed and fed. The schools were small schools and 3 of my grandparents went to work as soon as they were able…knowing basic reading and arithmetic required to continue into adulthood and beyond. The one grandparent that did graduate from high school managed it by living with another family in a small town for the last years of her education. It is likely that about the only books in the houses were Bibles; the schools might have provided books but probably not books like these.

Did only children of relatively wealthy, educated parents that lived in cities have books like these?

August 20, 2021

Henriette Willebeek LeMair

August 20, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

This week I am highlighting 4 Internet Archive books published between 1912 and 1917 that include Henriette Willebeek LeMair’s illustrations of children. They are an idealized version of childhood during that time in Holland. I was interested in the activities depicted!

Grannie’s Little Rhyme Book (1914) is a collection of old nursery rhymes that she illustrated.

The Children’s Corner (1915) was written by R.H. Elkin. Ordinary things like a child getting a haircut and dolls in timeout show up in the text and illustrations!

Old Dutch Nursery Rhymes (1917) has tunes compiled by J. Joentgen…with the English added by R.H. Elkins. The illustrations I chose for my samples are for tunes “The Ducks” and “The stork has brough a baby brother”!

Little Songs of Long Ago (1912) has tunes compiled by Alfred Moffat. The tunes illustrated by the samples below are “Dame get up and bake your pies” and “See-saw, Marjorie Daw.”

Life has changed in many ways for children in the past 100+ years….but the spirit of children that comes through in the illustration is still easy to find today. What will it be like for children 100 years from now? It is something I am thinking about a lot recently….and how I can turn my concern about the changes happening in the Earth’s climate into action.

August 13, 2021

Two Books with William Russell Flint Illustrations

August 13, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

The week’s pick from my recently browsed books on Internet Archive are two written by W.S. Gilbert and illustrated by William Russell Flint. The Scottish artist was known for his watercolors of women….and the illustrations from these books offer some examples of his work.

Princess Ida; or, Castle adamant (1912)

Ruddigore : or, The witch's curse (1912)

The artist was long lived (1880-1969) so many books with his illustrations are still copyrighted. I wonder how (or if) his depictions of women changed over the years; certainly fashions changed a lot over the 1900s and the role of women changed with two world wars, more access to education, and the roles of women in industry/business.

August 06, 2021

eBotanical Prints – July 2021

August 06, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

20 botanical print books browsed in July and added to the list. There still seem to be a lot of botanical works to discover and browse – freely available from various sources on the internet. All the volumes this month are found on Internet Archive.

The first 7 volumes browsed in July were produced by Johann Hieronymus Kniphof using a process called “nature printing” that flattened the plants to produce the image…making them look much like herbarium specimens.

My favorite volume of the month was probably Thomas Taylor’s Drawings of Fungi --- maybe because they were so different from the other volumes.

Toward the end of month – I started the Jakob Sturm series; there are more to enjoy browsing in August! Online it isn’t obvious that the engravings were small (no more than 5 by 3.5 inches); they were made to be affordable to more people when they were originally published in the 1800s and remained in print through the early 1900s!

The whole list of 2,187 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the July books is at the end of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the July eBotanical Prints!

Botanica in originali V7-8 * Kniphof, Johann Hieronymus * sample image * 1758

Botanica in originali V3-4 * Kniphof, Johann Hieronymus * sample image * 1758

Botanica in originali V5-6 * Kniphof, Johann Hieronymus * sample image * 1758

Botanica in originali V9-10 * Kniphof, Johann Hieronymus * sample image * 1758

Botanica in originali V11-12 * Kniphof, Johann Hieronymus * sample image * 1758

Botanica in originali V1 * Kniphof, Johann Hieronymus * sample image * 1758

Botanica in originali V2 * Kniphof, Johann Hieronymus * sample image * 1758

Horti botanici bononiensis plantae novae vel minus cognitae * Bertoloni, Antonio * sample image * 1838

Florula Guatimalensis * Bertoloni, Antonio * sample image * 1830

Herbier général de l'amateur, contenant la description, l'histoire, les propriétés et la culture des végétaux utiles et agréables 1839 (2nd series, 5) * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M.; Lemaire, Charles Antoine * sample image * 1839

Flora gallica, seu, Enumeratio plantarum in Gallia sponte nascentium * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, J. L. A (editor) * sample image * 1836

Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz V1 * Thome, Otto Wilhelm * sample image * 1903

Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz V2 * Thome, Otto Wilhelm * sample image * 1903

Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz V3 * Thome, Otto Wilhelm * sample image * 1903

Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz V4 * Thome, Otto Wilhelm * sample image * 1903

Drawings of Fungi * Taylor, Thomas * sample image * 1839

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 1 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1906

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 2 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1900

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 3 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1900

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 4 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1905

July 16, 2021

Alice B. Woodward – Illustrator

July 16, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

I found and browsed 5 books illustrated by Alice B. Woodward in June. They are all freely available on Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg.

70 21 06 (2).jpg — The first one I found was published in 1895: Eric, Prince of Lorlonia, Or, The Valley of Wishes: A Fairy Tale of the Days of Chivalry. It is one of her earliest books.

She became a prolific illustrator in the early 1900s. The other 4 books are from that period. The illustrations are richly colored….full of detail…enhancing the story the book is telling.

71 21 06 (2).jpg — The Brownies and other Tales by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing in 1910

77 21 06 (4).jpg — The Pinafore Picture Book by W.S. Gilbert in 1908

79 21 06 (1).jpg — The Story of Peter Pan Picture Book by Daniel O’Connor in 1915

88 21 06 (6).jpg — The Story of the Mikado by W.S. Gilbert in 1921

She continued to work into the early 1930s so there could be additional books that become more accessible as the copyright expires.

July 09, 2021

eBotanical Prints – June 2021

July 09, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

20 botanical print books browsed in June and added to the list. I finished the Flora Brasiliensis volumes (started back in April) in June. There is quite an age range in the books for June

32 21 06 (28).jpg — The earliest (Nederlandsh bloemwerk) from 1794

55 21 06 (8).jpg — And the latest from (The Whole Fungus) from 1979.

Lots of changes in the types of images possible for publications!

The whole list of 2,167 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the June books is at the end of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the June eBotanical Prints!

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V14, pt 3 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V14, pt 4 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V15, pt 1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V15, pt 2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Eversley gardens and others * Kingsley, Rose Georgina * sample image * 1907

Roses and Rose Growing * Kingsley, Rose Georgina; Page-Roberts, F. * sample image * 1908

The ferns of Britain, and their allies * Deakin, Richard * sample image * 1848

Handbook to the Ferns of British India, Ceylan and the Malay Peninsula * Beddome, Richard Henry * sample image * 1883

The flora sylvatica for southern India * Beddome, Richard Henry; Bentham, George * sample image * 1869

Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis V1 * Beddome, Richard Henry * sample image * 1874

Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis V2 * Beddome, Richard Henry * sample image * 1874

Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis V3 * Beddome, Richard Henry * sample image * 1874

The Ferns of South India * Beddome, Richard Henry * sample image * 1873

Nederlandsch bloemwerk * T.B. Elwe in Amsterdam (publisher) * sample image * 1794

Grevillea * Williams and Norgate (publisher) * sample image * 1872

The Genus Rosa V1: pt 1-16 * Willmott, Ellen Ann; Parsons, Alfred (illustrator) * sample image * 1914

The Genus Rosa V2: pt 17-25 * Willmott, Ellen Ann; Parsons, Alfred (illustrator) * sample image * 1914

The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H.M. discovery ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839-1843 * Fitch, W.H.; Hooker, Joseph Dalton * sample image * 1844

Flora vitiensis - a description of the plants of the Viti or Fiji islands * Fitch, W. H.; Seemann Berthold * sample image * 1865

The Whole fungus : the sexual-asexual synthesis V2 * Kendrick, Bryce * sample image * 1979

July 02, 2021

F.M. Melchers and L’an

July 02, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

My ‘book of the week’ is L’an (The Year) published in 1897. The French text was written by a Brussels lawyer, Thomas Braun but the Franz M. Melchers illustrations are the reason to browse this book. I’ve selected two illustrations for each season from the book.

It is a treat to discover a book like this – enjoying it and then searching for information about the artist’s life. In Melchers’ case, there is not a lot of information available via search. He was Dutch, born 1868 and died 1944 in Antwerp (during the German occupation). He evidently made his living as an artist – moved around and included in many exhibitions (Munster, Veere, Brussels, The Hague, Antwerp). The only book he illustrated was L’an….and it is a gem.

June 25, 2021

The Sculpture of Abraham Anghik Ruben

June 25, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

Not all the books on Internet Archive are old; sometimes the copyright holder give permission to make a book available with provisos like Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International – which is the case for the book I am featuring in this post

Arctic Journeys, Ancient Memories: The Sculpture of Abraham Anghik Ruben

The book is the catalog of an exhibition that was at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian from October 4, 2012-January 2, 2013. I wish I would have seen the exhibit in 2013, but finding the catalog and discovering the artist now is the next best thing! I picked 4 favorites from the images in the catalog which is well worth browsing.

The sculptures can be enjoyed visually but the backstories add to their meaning. There is an additional one that I noticed on the sculptor’s website that stands out: The Last Goodbye which depicts the sculptor’s lived experience with children being sent away to residential schools in Canada and the US. There are stories in the news recently about what happened in both countries; there are people still alive that lived it. The sculptor is only a couple of years older than me. The first step is acknowledging what happened.

Look at the sculptor’s web site and Wikipedia entry for more info.

June 18, 2021

3 Heinrich Schliemann Books

June 18, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

Heinrich Schliemann was a pioneer in the field of archaeology focusing primarily on pre-Hellenistic archaeology. His techniques were often destructive by today’s standards but that is often the case with pioneers in the field. He did publish his finds and I browsed through 3 of them back in May - all freely available. I’ve selected a few images from each of the books.

The Book of the Mycenae (1877)

Is that the back part of a crane on the right side of the pot? The three disks give me ideas for Zentangle tiles. Two of them are clearly nature based – an octopus and a bee.

Ilios : the city and country of the Trojans (1880)

The simplicity of the gold bracelets…I wondered if people wore them all the time once they put them on or if they were items were only worn intermittently. The decoration on the whorls – another source of Zentangle patterns. It’s appealing when a culture has the practice to make ordinary objects into art.

Tiryns; the Prehistoric Palace of the Kings of Tiryns, the results of the Latest Excavations (1886)

(Use the arrows to move through the three sample images to take a closer look). This is the only book of the three that has color images…using it effectively to depict the fragments of wall painting with the whole pattern derived from the fragments. The fragments of vases were complete enough to have meaning on their own. The terracotta idols appeared to be mostly women!

I posted about Sir Arthur Evans a few weeks ago. He was another pioneering archaeologist with some overlap with Schliemann; Evans took over the excavation of Knossos after Schliemann’s plan to do so ended with his death.

June 13, 2021

Rose Georgina Kingsley

June 13, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

One of the books that I added to my list of botanical print books this month was Roses and Rose Growing by Rose Georgina Kingsley. The pictures of roses and learning a bit about the author appealed to me.

She does not have an entry in Wikipedia…not even listed in the entry for her father, Charles Kingsley. She was the oldest child and evidently followed her younger brother to Colorado Springs in 1871 (a few years before her father died) but was back in England and establishing Learnington High School (now The Kingsley School) for girls by 1884.

Her first book that I found on Internet Archive was South by west; or Winter in the Rocky Mountains and spring in Mexico – published in 1874, a year before her father died – about her experience in Colorado and travel into Mexico. Her father wrote the preface and edited the book; her name is not on the title page even though she wrote everything except the preface and created the illustrations! The metadata on Internet Archive makes the attribution but puts her name in brackets. Maybe it was easier to get the book published with her father’s name.

All the other books I found for her on Internet Archive are from the period where she was also establishing and running the school:

The Children of Westminster Abbey in 1886

The History of French Art in 1899

Eversley Gardens and Others in 1907

Roses and rose growing in 1908

Garden colour: Spring in 1911

I was surprised that I couldn’t find a complete biography for her. She left a legacy in her writings and her school that is significant – maybe that is the way she wanted to be remembered rather than what someone else wrote about her.

June 04, 2021

eBotanical Prints – May 2021

June 04, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

20 botanical print books browsed in May and added to the list. I am in the process of browsing the Flora Brasiliensis volumes (started in April…continued in May…and will be finished in June). I browse the volumes in Internet Archive but it is easier to find all the volumes in Botanicus…enabling me to find them all very easily.

Something unusual in this group: The V12 pt 3 volume included some pages with scanning anomalies…but I thought they looked very art-like. The sample image for the volume is a normal looking scan (in the mosaic of images for the month); that are three examples of pages with the scanning anomaly below.