The 21st Century Matriarch

During November, I browsed through 24 books illustrated by Joseph Pennell published between 1889 and 1918. The project was initiated by his book on Modern Illustration published in 1894 that I found early in the month. As I browsed through it, it seemed like a good reference to use for searching Internet Archive to find books illustrated by artists he cited; it’s so easy to search for names of authors (even though sometimes the illustrators are not listed in the metadata which makes it harder…then it’s back to the reference or the Wikipedia entry for the illustrator and searching by title). I opted to start my browsing with Joseph Pennell and collected some sample images from each book for this post. My main interest is the illustrations…the snapshots they provide of places as they were during Pennell’s time.

There are 4 more books in the 24 where Pennell is the author and illustrator: Joseph Pennell's pictures of war work in England (1917), San Francisco, the city of the Golden Gate (1916), Lithography and lithographers (1916), and Joseph Pennell's pictures of war work in America (1918). The books of World War I industrial scenes could easily be adjuncts to history classes about that time….most of them gritty…many awe inspiring.

Then there are the Highways and Byways books by various authors but with Pennell as the illustrator (or one of the illustrators):

Highways and byways in Normandy - Dearmer, Percey; Pennell, Joseph (1910)

Highways and byways in East Anglia - Dutt, William Alfred; Pennell, Joseph (1901)

Highways and byways in Devon and Cornwall - Norway, Arthur Hamilton; Pennell, Joseph; Thomson, Hugh (1897)

Highways and byways in Yorkshire - Norway, Arthur Hamilton; Pennell, Joseph; Thomson, Hugh (1899)

This is another example of how to find books to browse on Internet Archive; a simple search for “highways and byways in” yielded other books in the series that I’ve put on my list to browse... another thread to those others illustrators of Pennell’s time.

3 books were authored by Henry James with Pennell as the illustrator: English Hours (1905), and A Little Tour in France (1901), and Italian Hours (1909).

Pennell illustrated Maurice Henry Hewlett’s The Road to Tuscany (1904) published in 2 volumes (vol 1 and vol 2).

Pennell was an American but spent his career based in London…but he travelled widely. Aside from the San Francisco book which he authored himself, there are 2 books in the 24 about places in the US: The Creoles of Louisiana - Cable, George Washington; Pennell, Joseph (1914) and The new New York : a commentary on the place and the people - Van Dyke, John Charles; Pennell, Joseph (1909).