3 Free eBooks - December 2013

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for December 2013.

Zeller, Hannah. Wild Flowers of the Holy Land. London: James Nisbet and Co.1876. Available from Internet Archive here. I was taking a Coursera course about the fall and rise of Jerusalem when I happened upon this book. It seemed to fit my mood - thinking about that area of the world. How many of these flowers that grew wild there in the 1876 are still growing wild?

UNESCO. Egyptian Wall Paintings from Tombs and Temples. New York: The New American Library of World Literature, Inc. 1962. Available from the Internet Archive here. This book is recent enough that the images are color photographs. Many of the photographs are famous images but others were new to me and interested me more - particularly the ones that were show in the place they were originally found rather than in a museum.

Dimirov, Bojidar. Bulgaria - Illustrated History. Sofia, Bulgaria: BORINA Publishing House. 1994. Available from the Internet Archive here. I enjoyed both the older aspects of the history and the landscape illustrations in this book. The stratigraphic chart on page 10 shows periods of ancient material culture in the land that became Bulgaria. A portion of the chart is shown to the left.

3 Free eBooks - November 2013

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for November 2013.

Gusman, Pierre.Pompei, the city, its life & art. London: W. Heinemann. 1900. Available from the Internet Archive here. Pompeii still fascinates us today. This book has drawings and color illustrations - for tourists of more than a century ago.

Smith, Watson; Woodbury, Richard Benjamin; Woodbury, Nathalie F. S. The Excavation of Hawikuh by Frederick Webb Hodge: report of the Hendricks-Hodge Expedition, 1917-1923. New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. 1966. Available from the Internet Archive here. Hawikuh is located near the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico. Since I had just visited the Southwest in October - the images in this book prolonged the experience once I got back home to Maryland. The book contained many drawings of the designs from pots that reminded me of the pots at Edge of Cedars State Park.

Japanese decorated silk. 1700. Available from the Internet Archive here. This is a digitized version of a swatch book - decorated pieces of silk mounted in an accordion-type folder. The images on silk are elegant glimpses into the skill of the Japanese in 1700; no wonder the silks were in high demand.

3 Free eBooks - October 2013

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for October 2013.

Mollhausen, Balduin. Reisen in die Felsengebirge Nord-Amerikas Bd. 1. Leipzig: H. Constenoble. 1861. Available from the Internet Archive here. The images of the desert southwest that were published in 1861 are full of plants that are (mostly) realistically portrayed. 

 Macbeth-Evans Glass Company. Shades and Globes. Pittsburgh: Bartlett-Orr Press. 1912. Available from the Internet Archive here. This catalog from the early 1900s has some appealing ‘shades and globes’ for light fixtures that would not look out of place in a home today. I like the iridescent glass and the pattern of the one I clipped for this post.

Wittmack, L. Gartenflora Bd. 42. Berlin: Verlag von Paul Parey. 1893. Available from Internet Archive here. I am still savoring the volumes of Gartenflora ---- going through a few more each month. The chrysanthemum was one of my favorite images from October.

3 Free eBooks - September 2013

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for September 2013.

Asbjørnsen, Peter Christen; Moe, Jørgen Engebretsen; Dasent, George Webbe, Sir; Nielsen, Kay Rasmus. East of the sun and west of the moon: old tales from the North. New York: G.H. Doran. 1922. Available from the Internet Archive here. Take a look at this eBook for the Kay Nielsen illustrations. They are outstanding. A synopsis of the story is available on Wikipedia here.

International Studio - An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art - Volume 51 (Issues from November 1913 to February 1914). New York: John Lane Company. 1914. Available from the Internet Archive here. What was the art world like just before World War I? Take a look at this volume to find out. One of my favorite  images is shown below; it’s called “An Interlude - the Breadman’s Donkey” from a wood engraving by Helen Hyde. Find out more about her via Wikipedia here. The Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery website has a collection of 126 pieces from this artist. Other artists featured in this magazine either were famous or became so afterward. It is well worth a look at the images online.

Moncrieff, Ascott Robert Hope. Bonnie Scottland; painted by Sutton Palmer. London: A. & C. Black. 1912. Available from the Internet Archive here. I loved the pictures of landscapes (mountains, streams, the sea) and castles. I picked a fall picture from the book to feature in this post - to fit the season we are beginning. This book is from the period just before World War I…the year the Titanic sank.

3 Free eBooks - August 2013

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for August 2013.

Regel, Eduard. Gartenflora. Erlangen: F. Enke. 1859. Available from the Internet Archive here. The text is in German….the botanical prints are the draw to this vintage book. Annual volumes were published until the early 1900s and I am making my way through the volumes.

Mathew, Frank James and Cooper, Alfred Heaton. Ireland. London: A. & C. Black. 1916. Available from the Internet Archive here. A book with many color illustrations of what Ireland was like just before World War I.

Ontario College of Art. The Tangent. Toronto: Ontario College of Art Students’ Club. 1938. Available from the Internet Archive here. This book includes images from Canadian art students from just before World War II.

Free eBooks - July 2013

It’s time again for the monthly post of eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for July 2013.

Toronto Art League. Calendar for the year 1901. Toronto: Musson Book Co. 1901. Available here. 1901 was the year one of my grandfathers was born. I collect books that give me a perception of what the world was like then. How different the world was!

Verner, Dorte (editor). Reducing Poverty, Protecting Livelihoods, and Building Assets in a Changing Climate : Social Implications of Climate Change for Latin America and the Caribbean. World Bank. 2010. Available here. I was taking two different Coursera courses - one on Latin American Culture and the other on Climate Literacy; I’m not sure which one listed this as a reference. It makes the point that the progress made in developing countries can be undermined by climate change. 

Musson, Spencer C. and Lewis, John Hardwick. La Cote d'Emeraude. London: A and C Black. 1912. Available here. History of a place before World War I and art work rolled into one. I like the picture below of a bridge. 

3 Free eBooks - June 2013

It’s time again for the monthly post of eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for June 2013.

Chadwick, Luie. Fashion drawing and design: a practical manual for art students and others. London: Batsford. 1926. Available from the Internet Archive here. Scan through the illustrations for historical perspective of fashion illustration or fashion itself. I particularly liked the silhouettes below.

Gordon, Elizabeth. Flower Children. Chicago: P.F. Volland and Company. 1910. Available from the Internet Archive here. The drawings capture both children and flowers. The tiger lily and trillium are shown at the right. What fun it would be to have customs along these lines for ‘dress up’ play!

Quennell, Marjorie Courtney andQuennell, Charles Henry Bourne. A History of Everyday Things in England. London: Batsford. 1918-1934. Three volumes available on the Internet Archive: volume 2, volume 3, and volume 4. This is quite a series - covering from the 16th Century to the early 1930s. The illustrations depict changes in that time period for simple things like staircases to work such as farming and the advent of the industrial age. The high chair from about 1860 (left) looks like a low table with a chair attached to the top! 

3 Free eBooks - May 2013

The Internet has a growing number of online books…and many of them are free. This is my monthly post highlighting 3 that I have enjoyed most this past month.

National Research Council. Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds. December 2012. Available in several downloadable forms here. A new global trends report is published every 4 years following the US Presidential election. It is intended to provide a framework for thinking about possible futures and their implications. Is our future going to be characterized by stalled engines, fusion, gini-out-of-the-bottle or nonstate world…or some combination?

Paxton, Sir Joseph. Paxton’s Magazine of Botany and Register of Flowering Plants. London: W.S. Orr and Co. 1834-1849. More than 10 volumes available on the Internet Archive here. I can’t resist including at least one eBook with botanical prints. Many of the images are quite recognizable - like the azalea at right.

Dobson, George; Grove, Henry M; Stewart, Hugh; Haenen, F. de. Russia. London, A. and C. Black. 1913. Available from the Internet Archive here. Look at this book for the pictures and realize that it is about that time just before World War I when everything was breaking…no one fathomed just how bad it was going to be or what would be built afterwards on the rubble.

3 Free eBooks - April 2013

The Internet has a growing number of online books…and many of them are free. This is my monthly post highlighting 3 that I have enjoyed most this past month.

Gray, Asa. The Forest Trees of North America. Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution. 1891. This is really the plates prepared for a book. The work was done between 1849 and 1859. It is available in PDF form here. The first three images hooked me for the rest of the volume: magnolias and tulip polar. The tulip poplar in our back yard is just getting ready to bloom…and the image captures the look of the tree quite well.

Redoute, Pierre Joseph. Les Roses. Paris, De L’Imprimerie de Firmin Didot. 1824. There are actually three volumes available on the Internet Archive: 1817, 1821, and 1824. All three contain pages and pages of botanical prints of roses. I was prompted to look for these books when I saw a reference to them in May Theilgaard Watts’ Reading the Landscape of Europe.

Sale, Edith Dabney Tunis (editor for James River Garden Club, Richmand). Historic Gardens of Virginia. Richmond, William Byrd Press. 1923. Available from the Internet Archive here. The book includes the birds-eye view of many gardens as well as a few vistas from ground level. It is tempting to see how many of these gardens still exist!

3 Free eBooks - March 2013

The Internet has a growing number of online books…and many of them are free. This is my monthly post highlighting 3 that I have enjoyed most this past month.

Featon, Edward and Sarah. Art Album of New Zealand Flora. Wellington, New Zealand. Bock & Cousins. 1889. Available in two volumes: one and two. These volumes were the first full-color art book published in New Zealand. Now the botanical art (and the text) are digitized and available on the Internet Archive. A sample clip from one of the pages is to the left.

The second item on my list this month is a magazine archive rather than a book. I found it when I was looking for resources on the web about May Theilgaard Watts (and about ‘reading the landscape’). Chicago Wilderness Magazine was published from 1997-2009 by Chicago Wilderness (a regional alliance dedicated to protecting nature and enriching life). The archive can be found here. The articles and photographs are focused on the outdoors around Chicago in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.

Toulouse, Pamela Rose. Integrating Aboriginal Teaching and Values into the Classroom. Canada. The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat and the Ontario Association of Deans of Education. 2008. Available here. This is a research monograph from Canada but broadly applicable to diverse, inclusive classrooms. Who does not want children to learn respect, love, bravery, wisdom, humility, honesty, and truth? The site includes other education/teaching ‘research into practice’ monographs as well (follow the link at the bottom of the PDF). 

3 Free eBooks - February 2013

The Internet has a growing number of online books…and many of them are free. This is my monthly post highlighting 3 that I have enjoyed most this past month.

Bulliard, Pierre. Flora Parisiensis Volume 2. Paris, P.F. Didot. 1776. Available here. This is a botanical text that was produced in France while the American Revolution was happening. Multiple volumes are available at the Internet Archive and all contain many color plates like the one to the left of a tulip. This must have been a very expensive book when it was produced!

Ernst, James A. Drawing the Line, Fine and Commercial Art. New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation. 1962.  Available here. Skipping ahead almost 200 years from the first book, this book does not contain color. It is a book that encourages action…it's a great way to build up your motivation to make some drawings. Any book that causes me to do something is one that goes on my favorites list!

The last item for this month is not a specific eBook. It is a reminder that many public libraries offer eBooks via their web presence that can be checked out for 2 or 3 weeks. Check to see what yours offers. Many libraries use the Overdrive service to drive their selections;  search the Overdrive list of participating libraries to see if your library is on the list. I’ve read over 100 books on my Kindle from my local library. Right now I am working my way through the mysteries written by Nevada Barr!

3 Free eBooks - January 2013

The Internet has a growing number of online books….and many of them are free. This is the monthly post highlighting 3 that I have enjoyed most this past month.

Shin-bijutsukai (2 volumes from early 1900s). Kyoto: Yamada Geikido. Available here. Art from Japan of the early 1900s. The red leaves at the left is a portion of one of my favorite images from the books.

White, John and Michael Dennin. Science Appreciation: Introduction to Science Literacy. ComPADRE. 2010 Available here. This is the text for Coursera’s Science from Superheroes to Global Warming offering. Even if you already consider yourself ‘science literate’ it is worth perusing for an update on how the issue of illiteracy in this particular topic area is being approached in our colleges.

Leonard, Anna B. and Adelaide Alsop Robineau. Keramic Studio periodical (volumes 2, 10, 13, 16 and 20 from 1900 to 1919). Syracuse, NY: Keramic Studio Publishing Co. Available here. Keramic Studio was pioneering periodical for ceramic artists and potters in the early 1900s. It was full of wonderful images that were emerging in that heady time when so much was changing just before World War I and immediately thereafter. The variety of work depicted - from drawings to finished works - is quite broad. Some of my favorites are the images of peacock feathers in volume 10 show in the clips to the right.

The previous eBook posts can be found here.