Burma in 1925

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Paul Edmonds visited Burma and wrote a book published in 1925 Peacocks and Pagodas that is available from Internet Archive. I enjoyed the illustrations.

The author is not as judgmental as many European writers of travel books in the 1920s; he acknowledges the cultural difference: “The Burman know that happiness is better than wealth” --- whereas “The Englishman believes that wealth is better than happiness, or at least synonymous with it.” He frees himself to simply observe by getting that difference acknowledged from the beginning…also recognizing that the colonial system will try to force Burmese culture to move toward the European/English, perhaps destroying the focus on happiness over wealth entirely.

And here we are 100 years later….so many people still conflicted about the relationship between wealth and happiness.

eBotanical Prints – December 2022

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Another 20 botanical books in December. I started out the month with 12 volumes about mosses of North America published by A. J. Grout; the Wikipedia entry says that he taught at Curtis High School in Staten Island from 1908 to 1930…and evidently kept his primary focus on mosses for his entire adult life.

This month also includes 2 books by Agnes Arber (a British botanist) and one by her husband Edward Alexander Newell Arber (a botanist/paleontologist). The Wikipedia article on Agnes reflects the challenging research situation for female academics of her time.

George Vasey was a British-born American botanist of the US Department of Agriculture. Three of his books about grasses finish out the December botanical print books.

The whole list of 2,532 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the December 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the December 2022 eBotanical Prints!

Moss Flora Of North America Volume I  Part 1 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1936

Moss Flora Of North America Volume I  Part 2 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1936

Moss Flora Of North America Volume I  Part 4 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1939

Moss Flora Of North America Volume II  * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1940

Moss Flora Of North America Volume II Part 1 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1933

Moss Flora Of North America Volume II Part 2 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1935

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1906

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III Part 1 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1928

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III Part 2 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1931

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III Part 3 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1932

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III Part 3 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1934

Moss Flora Of North America Volume II Part 3 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1935

Water Plants - A study of aquatic angiosperms * Arber, Agnes * sample image * 1920

Herbals, their origin and evolution; a chapter in the history of botany, 1470-1670 * Arber, Agnes * sample image * 1912

Devonian floras; a study of the origin of Cormophyta * Arber, Edward Alexander Newell; Arber, Agnes Robertson * sample image * 1921

The ferns (filicales) V1 * Bower, Frederick Orpen * sample image * 1928

Plant-life * Hall, Charles Albert * sample image * 1915

Illustrations of North American Grasses V1 - Grasses of the Southwest * Vasey, George * sample image * 1891

Illustrations of North American Grasses V2 - Grasses of the Pacific Slope * Vasey, George * sample image * 1893

The agricultural grasses of the United States * Vasey, George * sample image * 1884

When I was a boy/girl in….

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In the early 1900s, Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard published a series of books written by immigrants about their early years in the country where they were born. The books were illustrated with photographs and a few drawings. The series is a reminder of how diverse the American population had become by the 1900s and provide a snapshot of growing up in the 1800s by people reflecting on their early years in a country they might never has seen again once they left. Enjoy the 18 books in the series available on Internet Archive!

When I was a boy in Armenia (1926) -- When I was a girl in Switzerland (1921)

Old Dominion in 1916

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I enjoyed finding familiar scenes in Walter Hale’s drawings of sights in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia in the book We Discover the Old Dominion that was published in 1916. The text was written by his wife, Louise Closser Hale who was an American actress, playwright, and novelist.

The three sample images I picked from the book are places I have been in recent years. It was interesting to see how they looked in the time before World War I!

The first image is South Mountain (in Maryland). It’s now a rest stop on I-70; in 1916 there was a toll house there and the road was much more rustic.

The second is the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry – still a scenic spot today and part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

The third is the White House. It looks very similar today --- although there are barricades and fences that weren’t in place in 1916.

Several other Hale books are available on Internet Archive as well: A Motor Car Divorce from 1906, Motor Journeys in 1912, and We discover New England from 1915. The vision of the couple traveling together and creating a book as a product of their experience is appealing – and provide of historical view of the places they saw. Walter Hale died in 1917. Louise Closser Hale continued writing (but not travel books) and went to Hollywood – portraying older women in movies until her death in 1933.

Maya and US Southwest Archeology eBooks by Earl H. Morris

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A little archaeology from the early 1900s…books available from Internet Archive with great illustrations made immediately after excavations:

Preliminary account of the antiquities of the region between the Mancos and La Plata rivers in southwestern Colorado  (1919)

The Temple of the warriors at Chichen Itzá, Yucatan (plates) (1930)

Earl H. Morris did archaeological field work from 1912 to 1940….contributing artifacts to institutions that supported his work and a myriad of publications until his death in 1956. Both books are well worth the time to browse.

The first book’s pictures of pottery from the southwest reminded me of a visit to the Arizona State Museum’s The Pottery Project room….it was a place to savor shapes and patterns…I spent more time in that room than any other at the museum.

Coles Phillips eBooks

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Coles Phillips was an illustrator known for his stylish images of women for books, advertisements, and the covers of popular magazines. I browsed two of his books on Internet Archive recently:

A Gallery of Girls (1911)

A Young Man's Fancy (1912)

More of his magazine covers can also be found on Internet Archive (list here).

He died relatively young in June 1927; Life magazine featured one of his creations on the cover in July 1927 (and a 2-page illustrated obituary). His last Life magazine cover was in September 1927. The illustrations are available from Internet Archive via the link above.

He was one of the artists that depicted the greater freedoms of women in the 1920s. I wondered, as I realized how young he had been when he died, how his art would have evolved had he lived through the great depression and World War II.

eBotanical Prints – November 2022

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Another 20 botanical books in November. Four works by Ethelbert Blatter (best known as a pioneering botanist in British India) available on Internet Archive were browsed as well as 3 authored by Frederick Orpen Bower. I noticed that I’d missed browsing the 3rd volume of Bower’s The Ferns until I was writing this post – so I’ll include it with the December books.

The whole list of 2,512 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the November 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the November 2022 eBotanical Prints!

Lehrbuch der Botanik fur Hochschullen * Strasburger, Eduard, Noll, Fritz, Schenck, Henrich, et al * sample image * 1923

A history of British ferns * Newman, Edward * sample image * 1874

My Shrubs * Pillipotts, Eden * sample image * 1915

Plant-geography upon a physiological basis * Schimper, Andreas Franz, Wilhelm; Fisher, William Rogers et al * sample image * 1903

Cape Flowers at Home 1929 - Series I * Marloth, Rudolf * sample image * 1929

Das Kapland  * Marloth, Rudolf; Schimper, Andreas Franz Wilhelm * sample image * 1908

The origin of a land flora : a theory based upon the facts of alternation  * Bower, Frederick Orpen * sample image * 1908

The ferns (filicales) V1 * Bower, Frederick Orpen * sample image * 1923

The ferns (filicales) V2 * Bower, Frederick Orpen * sample image * 1923

Manuel complet de l'amateur de roses : leur monographie, leur histoire, et leur culture * Boitard, Pierre * sample image * 1836

Beautiful flowers of Kashmir Beautiful flowers of Kashmir V1 * Blatter, Ethelbert; Withen, G.A.; Walli, Haldar Joo * sample image * 1929

Beautiful flowers of Kashmir Beautiful flowers of Kashmir V2 * Blatter, Ethelbert; Withen, G.A.; Walli, Haldar Joo * sample image * 1929

The Bombay Grasses * Blatter, Ethelbert; McCann, Charles * sample image * 1935

The Ferns of Bombay * Blatter, Ethelbert; Almeida, Joseph Francis * sample image * 1922

Popular studies of California wild flowers * Rice, Bertha Marguete; Rice, Roland  * sample image * 1920

Mistletoe and holly * Prior, Sophia; Frey, Albert * sample image * 1939

Carnivorous plants * Prior, Sophia * sample image * 1939

Coffee * Dahlgren, Bror Eric * sample image * 1938

Tropical and Subtropical Fruits * Dahlgren, Bror Eric * sample image * 1947

Common Mushrooms * Pray, Leon Luther; Dahlgren, Bror Ericc * sample image * 1936

Ducks, Geese, and Swans of the World (eBooks)

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Nagamichi Kuroda was a Japanese aristocrat and ornithologist. Two of his books (in Japanese) published in 1912 and 1913 are available from Internet Archive…worth a look for the illustrations. I’ve selected a sample illustration from each book.

Geese and Swans of the World

As I browsed these books, I wondered how many of the birds he documented still survive in viable numbers.

Kuroda lived a long time and published books on Javanese birds and Parrots…so there will be more of his books to enjoy as the copyrights expire. Both World Wars probably impacted his work; the books available now were published before World War I and the next ones mentioned I the Wikipedia entry are in the early 1930s and then beginning again in the 1950s. The Wikipedia entry was short on details of his life.

Donald Maxwell Illustrations

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Donald Maxwell was an English writer and illustrator active in the first third of the 20th century. This week’s free eBook selections are 5 of Maxwell’s self-illustrated books that are available on Internet Archive:

A dweller in Mesopotamia (1920)

Unknown Kent (1921)

The Last Crusade (1920)

Unknown Essex (1925)

Unknown Sussex (1924)

These are easy books to browse for the illustrations which are a mix of line drawings and color plates. Enjoy!

Snow and Ice Photography

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Herbert Walker Wagner’s Snow and Ice Photography was published in 1938 and is available on Internet Archive. My takeaways are from two perspectives: 1) composition ideas for my next encounter with snow and ice and 2) as a historical record of the state of photographic art in the 1930s – just before World War II. The ‘looks like’ (ice herd example) idea emphasized through cropping and the naming of compositions are my top two compositional ideas from the book. Historically – the realization (again and again) about how much easier it is now to take and enhance photographs; digitization and software has changed photography tremendously.

Enjoy the three samples I picked to include in this post…there are many more in the book which is well worth a look!

eBotanical Prints – October 2022

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20 botanical books in October. I continued to enjoy books about gladioli – finding them in September but saving them to browse in October; they are catalogs from a nursery that specialized in the bulbs that was in Indiana. I will probably plant some gladioli bulbs next spring…bring back some memories of my grandparents growing them for cut flowers during my childhood summers.   

There was a botanical atlas and textbook this month. And - I found quite a few publications by German botanists in October; 13 of the 20 books are in German!

The whole list of 2,492 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the October 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the October 2022 eBotanical Prints!

Kunderd gladioli : 1925 / A.E. Kunderd * Kunderd, A.E. * sample image * 1925

Fourteen weeks in botany : being an illustrated flora  * Wood, Alphoso; Steele, Joel Dorman * sample image * 1879

Kunderd gladioli : 1922 * Kunderd, A.E. * sample image * 1922

The Botanical Atlas: A Guide to the Practical Study of Plants, containing Representatives of the Leading Forms of Plant Life, Vol. II * M'Alpine, Daniel * sample image * 1883

Kunderd gladioli for 1923 * Kunderd, A.E. * sample image * 1923

Kunderd gladioli for 1929 * Kunderd, A.E. * sample image * 1929

Lehrbuch der praktischen Pflanzenkunde in Wort und Bild * Hoffmann, Carl  * sample image * 1880

Die Coniferen und die Gnetaceen V2 * Strasburger, Eduard * sample image * 1872

A text-book of botany * Strasburger, Eduard; Schenck, Heinrich; Noll, Fritz; Karsten, George; Lang, William Henry * sample image * 1908

Vegetationsbilder ser 1  * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1904

Vegetationsbilder ser 2 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1905

Vegetationsbilder ser 3 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1906

Vegetationsbilder ser 4 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1906

Vegetationsbilder ser 6 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1909

Vegetationsbilder ser 7 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1910

Vegetationsbilder ser 8 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1911

Vegetationsbilder ser 9 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1912

Vegetationsbilder ser 11 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1914

Vegetationsbilder aus Südbrasilien * Wettstein, Richard * sample image * 1904

Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Vegetation der Canarischen Inseln Bd 2 T 1 Lief 2 * Schenck, Heinrich; Schimper, Andreas Franz Wilhelm * sample image * 1907

2 more Sir Arthur Evans eBooks on Internet Archive

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 Enjoy!

The Rubáiyát of a Persian Kitten

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Oliver Herford’s The Rubáiyát of a Persian Kitten is available from Internet Archive…it was published in 1904 with his drawings….showing that the antics of kittens were as amusing more than 100 years ago as they are today. The swatting of the ink bottle on the desk might date one of the sample images I selected, but the motion of the kitten is familiar… and equally disastrous for any small breakable/spillable object on a counter or table…as we experience every day with our 3 kittens.

Enjoy browsing this book online: The Rubáiyát of a Persian kitten!

Carl Lumholtz eBooks

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I am featuring 5 books, available from Internet Archive, by Norwegian explorer and ethnographer, Carl Lumholtz. His way of working influenced the field of ethnography – broadening the field to include of social relationships, attitudes, and the role of women. The illustrations from 4 books about his work in Mexico skew toward material culture – which was, from the beginning, part of ethnography; he spent longer in the field than most researchers of the time. He was in Mexico off and on between 1890 and 1910.

Decorative art of the Huichol Indians (1904)

New Trails in Mexico (1912)

Unknown Mexico V1 (1902)

Unknown Mexico V2 (1902)

His expedition to Borneo was from 1915-1918 and it turned out to be his last. The sample image I chose from this book is a high-status couple. I was intrigued by the woman’s clothing…of the different kinds of materials and where they might have originated.

Through Central Borneo (1920)

 Lumholtz died in 1922 of tuberculosis.

eBotanical Prints – September 2022

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20 botanical print books in September. My favorite books are the third and last ones on the list…because they reminded me of some of my own history. The third book is about the plants of the Four Corners area of the southwest US (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah) – a lot of great vacation memories over the past 50 years. The last book on the list is about gladioli and it reminded me of my maternal grandfather’s garden in the 1960s. He had a long row of gladioli and there were always plenty of flower stalks to cut for bouquets; the most common place for the big vase was on top of the tea cart under my grandmother’s portrait; that tea cart is now in my daughter’s house.

The whole list of 2,472 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the September 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the September 2022 eBotanical Prints!

Flora Costaricensis No. 18 * Burger, William (editor) * sample image * 1986

Flora Costaricensis No. 49 * Pupulin, Franco * sample image * 2010

Flora of the four corners region * Heil, Kenneth D. * sample image * 2013

Fossil floras of Cape Colony * Seward, Albert Charles * sample image * 1903

Plant life through the ages * Seward, Albert Charles * sample image * 1933

Links with the past in the plant world * Seward, Albert Charles * sample image * 1911

Lewis David von Schweinitz drawings of fungi Part IV * Schweinitz, Lewis David Von * sample image * 1805

Historia muscorum * Dillenius, Johann Jakob * sample image * 1741

The Miscellaneous Botanical Works, Vol. III- Atlas of Plates * Brown, Robert * sample image * 1868

The Botanical Atlas: A Guide to the Practical Study of Plants, containing Representatives of the Leading Forms of Plant Life, Vol. I  * M'Alpine, D. * sample image * 1883

Eucalyptographia: A Descriptive Atlas of the Eucalypts of Australia and the Adjoining Islands * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1879

Iconography of Australian species of Acacia and cognate genera * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1887

The Vegetation of the Chatham Islands * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1864

Description and illustrations of the myoporinous plants of Australia * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1886

Histoire Naturelle des Vegetaux; Phanerogames; Atlas- Renfermant 152 planches gravees sur aoier  * Spach, M. Eduard * sample image * 1846

Atlas du Repertoire des Plantes Utiles et des Plantes Veneneuses du Globe  * Duchesne, E. A.  * sample image * 1840

Botanischer bilder-atlas nach De Candolle's Natürlichem pflanzensystem * Hoffman, Carl * sample image * 1884

The Alpine Flora * Correvon, Henry; Robert Philippe; Clayforth, E.W. * sample image * 1911

Atlas des caractères spécifiques des plantes de la flore parisienne & de la flore rémoise  * Lemoine, Victor * sample image * 1880

Gladioli * Macself, Albert James * sample image * 1925

120 interiors…from 1912

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I like books that reflect when they were written…provide illustrations that allow easy comparison with today. Casimir Hermann Baer edited 120 interiors in colours, designed by modern artists and it was published in 1912 in Cleveland OH. It’s interesting to pick out elements of the designs that look familiar. It’s one of my favorite ways to think more deeply about history – in this case, the best-that-money-could-buy shelter in 1912…in contrast to modern homes. Here’s are some samples from the book:

Open floor plans and natural light

Bedrooms with plenty of storage, rugs near the bed

Plenty of room for dining

Sometimes exotic wall treatments and high ceils for entries/stairs…chandeliers

These illustrations are clearly not from 2022!

There were no pictures of kitchens or bathrooms in the books. Those have changed a lot over the last century!

Advertising and British Art in the 1920s

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Walter Shaw Sparrow published Advertising and British Art in 1924. The illustrations in the book are historical as art…also for what they were ‘selling.’ Quite a few of them were about travel…places to go and how to get there!

The book got me thinking about art and advertising 100 years later. We do so much with photographs and digital media now….very different than the 1920s. Some of us have shifted somewhat to experience over additional possessions when it comes to discretionary spending – which would fit in with the ideas for travel in the book. But it seems like most of my ideas come from destination or topical searches rather than advertisements!

Through my office window – September 2022

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I am finally situated to do ‘through the window’ photography from my home office in Missouri. The last tweaks were to put the screen in storage and clean the window. I also moved one of the bird baths for easier viewing. My husband and I moved a bird feeder to be surrounded on three sides by hollies….the open side being visible from my window; the other feeder, in a more open space, has become secondary based on bird traffic. Here are the best images from this month:

House finches at the bird bath

Rain drops pelting the bird bath

A chickadee that seemed to be looking at me!

Goldfinches at the feeder

A downy woodpecker at the feeder

Doves taking over one of the patio chairs

Reflecting the world when my grandparents were born

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I recently browsed 12 books by Clifton Johnson in Internet Archive and realized that the years when they were published (1893 to 1915) were just prior and during the years my grandparents were born (1901-1912). My grandparents were born in Oklahoma and Texas; these places were not direct subjects of any of the books, but I thought my grandfather born in 1901 might have walked down a dusty road in Texas kicking up dust…dressed in overalls and a hat…just as pictured in The Farmer’s Boy. I couldn’t tell whether the boy in the picture had shoes or not; my grandfather talked about not wearing shoes when he was a child if it was warm enough because they always fit poorly and there was never enough money to buy new ones that fit. In the picture of “a schoolgirl at home” in Highways and Byways of the South – the bonnet reminds me of the type one of my grandmother’s wore when she was working outdoors for the duration of her long life.  

Johnson used both drawings and photographs to illustrate his books. The majority on this list are travel type books…but there are some fairy tale books too! According to the Wikipedia entry about him, he treated photographic prints as a “rough draft” – a challenging decision in pre-Photoshop days! He lived most of his life in the northeast of the US but travelled broadly…recording what he saw.

The Oak-Tree Fairy Book

The Farmer's Boy

New England and Its Neighbors

Highways and Byways of California

The New England Country

Highways and Byways of the Great Lakes

Highways and Byways of the Rocky Mountains

The Country School in New England

The book of country clouds and sunshine

Highways and Byways of the South

The Land of Heather

A book of fairy-tale bears; selections from favorite folk-lore stories

 

Enjoy the sample images (one from each book)!

Town Planning in 1909

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Raymond Unwin’s 1909 Town planning in practice: an introduction to the art of designing cities and suburbs is available in Internet Archive…a snapshot of the ideas of period with illustrations of examples. The illustrations I found most interesting were town/city plans. The ones from Moscow and the excavated part of Pompeii are the two samples I picked from the book.

Of course – a lot has changed in all the places shown in the book in the years since it was published but there are anchors in the built environment that are still around….sometimes perturbing modernization efforts and making infrastructure improvement more challenging. And there are some concepts that are still very much in evidence in modern cities – like ring roads (interstates) that surround all our major cities!