A Wanderer in…

I found a series of books with titles beginning “A Wanderer in…” by Edward Verrall Lucas published in the early 1900s and enjoyed the photos/ colored plates; Internet Archive has digitized versions of 6 books (5 places):

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London (1913 and 1916)

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Various artists produced the colored illustrations…sometimes with no attribution in the book. These were commercial books intended to capture the look and feel of the places – highlighting distinguishing features. Some of those features are still in views we associate with the cities today.

When I read books from the early 1900s, I always think about my grandparents growing up during those years. They were mostly in Oklahoma – far away from these places. Only one of them finished high school. I wondered how much world history/geography she learned in high school. How many books did they have? Did any of the books that saw have photos and colored prints like these?

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Tropical Storm Isaias. Lots of rain but not as much thunder as originally forecast. I spent my usual early morning hour on the covered deck. It was raining the whole time with birds and frogs making noises in the still dim light. The rain became music…getting quiet…then louder. Complex. The forest sounds of water on leaves and branches different than the sound of rain on the roof of the deck. For most of the hour, there was no breeze at all. Then just a flutter for a few seconds that caused as cascade of droplets from tree leaves and the long-tubed wind chime to move. Here are the two Zentangle tiles I made…along with enjoying my morning caffeine and doing some reading.

3 Free eBooks – February 2018

I’m saving the wonderful botanical print books I viewed in February for a post on botanical prints…so the three books featured today are from the rest of my online reading in February.

Mochizuki, Gyokusen. Gyokusen shūgajō. Tonaka Jihe, Kyoto-shi, Meiji 24. 1891. Available from the Smithsonian Libraries site here.  I liked the soft colors and the depictions of familiar things. The dragonfly on grassy stems was my favorite.

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Mori, Yuzan. Hamonshu. Yamada Geisodo, Kyoto-shi, Meiji 36. 1903. Three volumes are available from the Smithsonian Libraries site here. These books are all about depicting water. I got a lot of ideas for Zentangle patterns from these volumes

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.Ladies Realm – an illustrated monthly magazine. Published by Hutchinson and Co. London. The volumes from the late 1800s to 1913 are available on Hathi Trust here.  This period was one of transition. There was a lot of change in fashion and technology and what women were reading. At first there were a lot of pictures of the royal family and other aristocrats….and lots of pages devoted to fashion from Paris. As time when on, there was more fiction, more ‘how to’ articles, and by the 25th volume (1908-1909) an article showing pictures of London at night.