3 Free eBooks - October 2014

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 2014.

Heminway, M. & Sons Silk Co. A Treatise on Embroidery. New York: M. Heminway & Sons Silk Co. 1907. Available from the Internet Archive here. I started out looking at this book as a snapshot of embroidery from the early 1900s. Then I decided that the botanical depictions were quite good (the California poppies are my favorites). I savored the colors and artistry. In the days before television, embroidery rose to an art form - it was the tangible product of ‘free time’ for many women. In my adolescence in the 1960s, my grandmother taught me some basic embroidery stitches and I made a few pieces - and then stopped. I didn’t have time for it during high school, college and career; now, when I could return to it, embroidery does not appeal to me.  I don’t know anyone else that embroiders either.

Gell, William. Pompeiana. London: Jennings and Chaplan. 1832. Available from the Internet Archive in two volumes: one and two. Pompeii has attracted tourists for a long time. These volumes are from a time before the large numbers of the modern era.

Tennyson, Baron Alfred with decorations by Howard Pyle. The Lady of Shalott. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company. 1881. Available from the Internet Archive here. The illustrations make this worth a look. Sumptuous.

3 Free eBooks - September 2014

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 2014.

Calvert, Albert Frederick. Southern Spain - Painted by Trevor Haddon. London: A&C Black. 1908. Available from the Internet Archive here. I particularly liked the images of courtyards….beautiful outdoor spaces.

Moore, Frederic. The Lepidoptera of Ceylon. London: L. Reeve & Co. 1890. Three volumes from the Internet Archive: one, two, three.  The author was very active in India as well. I’ve looked at all the volumes for Ceylon and have started the ones for India. I wonder how many of the species still exist?

Brown, Leanne. Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day. New York. 2014. Available from the author’s website. You’ll get hungry just looking at recipes in this book!  I got caught on the first one (tomato scrambled eggs)…made it for lunch before I finished the rest of the book!

Enjoy some wonderful images (and some good food ideas)!

3 Free eBooks - August 2014

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 2014.

Shelley, George Ernest; Keulemans, John Gerrard (lithographer/llustrator). A monograph of the Nectariniidae, or, Family of sun-birds. London: Published by the author. 1876. Available from the Internet Archive here. The illustrations are the best of this book and there are other books that have the same lithographer also available on the Internet Archive that are worth a look too (although I think the sun-birds book is the best).

Dam, Jan Daniël van; Tichelaar, Pieter Jan; Schaap, Ella; Lins, P. Andrew. Dutch Tiles in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art.1984. Available from the Internet Archive here. I started looking for books that had tile patterns after the Coursera course I am taking on Symmetry used them as part of the introduction to the vocabulary used to discuss symmetry. What do you think of the grapes and pomegranates tiles? Notice that the tiles are rotated to create the pattern (the stems always point to the center).

an hui sheng chu si hai zong zhi hui bu. xiao mie wen ying de ye sheng zhi wu. 1958. Available from the Internet here. This is a Chinese botany book. I always enjoy botanical prints and these were no exception. It was also good to realize that books from around the world are making their way into the archive.

Enjoy these and many other books that are freely available on the internet.