New Masks

I bought 3 new masks since I want to have plenty to last me between laundry days….and it’s hot enough that I might want a fresh one if I’m out in the afternoon for very long. I ordered them from Society6.

These masks are heritage type prints – from books I was familiar with. The poppy and dandelion are from Elizabeth Blackwell’s A Curious Herbal (available from Internet Archive here). I browsed through it back in 2009.

The solar eclipse one is from Etienne Leopold Trouvelot’s Astronomical Drawings (available from Internet Archive here). I browsed the images in 2019.

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These masks are a little different than the 2 I already am using so I’ll wear one for an hour or so around the house to make sure it is comfortable enough for the time it takes to pickup my CSA share (and cut some flowers/herbs in the cutting garden) and buy groceries. I am going to keep a Ziploc of fresh masks in the car for the foreseeable future.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Tweaking the office. I am back to using my bouncy Swopper chair in front of my computer. It seems I am becoming pickier about how my office ‘fits’ my needs with being at home so much of the time. My back is happy today!

Breakfast picnic. I cut up the cantaloupe in chunks and cooked scrambled eggs. My husband cooked hash browns and bacon. And we ate the big breakfast out on our deck. It was the most pleasant temperature of the day. We were fortified enough to mow the yard about 30 minutes later….and that was the extent of our time outdoors until dusk when I went out to cut some day lilies that were blooming in the front flowerbed; I’ll enjoy them in a vase rather than taking the chance of the deer eating the flowers and buds.

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3 Free eBooks – June 2020

So many materials available online…

The three I am featuring this month are a bit different. The first two are slideshows available on Internet Archive. It was hard to choose just two; check here for 300 or so of them. Each of the slide shows is accompanied by a brief biography of the artist.

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Hussein Amin Bicar (1913 - 2002) – Egyptian. I enjoyed both the modern and the ancient depictions. I chose one of the modern images for the sample.

Josef Sudek (1896 - 1974) – Czech photographer. As I looked at the pictures – I thought about what made them most appealing to me and decided that there were multiple reasons:

  • The way the photographer captured unusual light and arrangement of places.

  • The historical aspect (I assumed that many of the damaged buildings were the aftermath of World War II).

  • The pictures of office clutter. I’ve known people that had similar piles of accumulated ‘stuff’!

Another reason I liked this artist: Half of my ancestors were Czech; the families immigrated to the US in the later 1800s. The life span of Sudek was like my Czech heritage grandfather’s (1896-1974 and 1901-1976). My grandfather was younger by just enough that he did not fight in World War I; Sudek did and was severely injured (an arm was amputated). What a difference in the way they experienced World War II! My grandfather was farming in eastern Oklahoma; Sudek lived through the Nazi’s in Prague and then Soviet domination of the country. Sudek lived most of his life in a European city: Prague; my grandfather lived on a farm, a small city, then the suburbs of a large city in Oklahoma and Texas. In 1960, my grandfather was injured in an accident (a leg was amputated). As I read the short biography of Sudek, I felt that in the last decade of their life, they would have enjoyed knowing each other.

I selected the sample picture because it was an unusual collection for a still life. The peacock feathers reminded me of the peacocks my non-Czech grandparents kept. The shells are something collected in travels by people that ordinarily live far from the sea (i.e. Prague or Oklahoma).

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The other eBook I chose this month was autobiographical…with names changed which I guess turns it into a novel. It was known as autobiographical when it was published so is usually discussed from that perspective.

Scott, Evelyn. Escapade. New York: Thomas Seltzer. 1923. Available at Internet Archive here. The parts that resonated the most with me were the author’s description of her pregnancy and the immediate aftermath. Her writing about her emotions and physical situation are so vivid. Her experience is often more intense because of the upheaval in her life early in the novel (eloping, moving from the US to London to Brazil) and then subsequent poverty and isolation. A brief biography of Evelyn Scott can be found here.

Unique activities for yesterday:

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Bright heart of the forest. When I first went into my office at 6:10 AM, the sunshine was bright on a tulip poplar tree trunk that normally does not stand out in the shade of the forest. The glow lasted for a few minutes before fading as the sun continued its rise. It was a good start to the day to see the tree appear as if lighted from within.

Zucchini muffins. I used up some summer squash by making muffins at mid-morning. It’s an easy process using the food processor to do the shredding. I chose a recipe for Zucchini Spice Cake from a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook…brought back memories of the restaurant in Ithaca when my daughter was working on her undergraduate degree at Cornell.

Finishing the deck drapery project. My husband and I put up additional hooks to hold all the deck drapery panels and I made tie backs for them. We were both hot and tired when we finished because the day was so hot and humid. It was not better by dinner, so we waited to have an outdoor dinner for another day.

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A Year Ago

What a difference a year makes….

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Last June I made the road trip from MD/PA to MO twice (beginning and end of month) to help my daughter move to Springfield MO. On the first trip we were in one car and I was in the passenger seat when we drove into St. Louis…was able to take a picture.

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The only sightseeing we did that trip was to the Springfield Art Museum when the key to the house my daughter had rented would not open the door and we had to a few hours waiting for the landlord.

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The highlight of the drive leaving Springfield on that first trip was a luna moth at our first rest stop.

On the trip toward the end of the month, we took a break before the movers arrived to visit the Springfield Botanical Gardens….saw zebra swallowtails in their butterfly house and a clever Monarch butterfly life cycle playground.

This June I am not traveling at all because of the pandemic. I am also not volunteering. Last June – between the two road trips – I was volunteering with two organizations: Howard County Conservancy field trips (there was a particularly memorable session with preschoolers learning about trees) and Brookside Gardens in their Wings of Fancy exhibit.

I miss the traveling and volunteering but have so many things I enjoy doing at my house that I am not feeling the pinch as much as I thought I would by this point. I credit the forest view from my house and the pleasant company of my husband and cat too.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Browsing National Geographic magazines. I’m slowly working my way through the digitized versions on Internet Archive (issues from 2009 – 2013). They always have wonderful pictures. So far – I’ve been limiting myself to 1 or 2 per day…giving myself time to savor the stories in each one.

Cat on the deck. Our cat is an early riser but not as early as me. He can be loud if he wakes up and no one is about so I listen for meows when I am out on the deck in the early morning….and encourage him to come out with me rather than waking up my husband. The cat usually settles down for a nap even if the birds are active around the deck. He wakes up and does some grooming when I start moving around…ready to go inside. I took a picture of him as he finished. He doesn’t look like he was ready to move but he got up immediately when I headed for the door.

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The cat is 19 years old and has a cauliflower ear and is missing part of his jaw….still able to go up and down the stairs in our house although he chooses to not do it as frequently as he did years ago.

eBooks, Rose and Shards Prompt, and Chipmunk

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

3 Free eBooks for May 2020

It’s time for me to look back at the eBooks I’ve been browsing this month and pick three. I cheated a little since the first one is 11 volumes. These are quite a visual feast and all published around 1920.

Mathews, Gregory Macalister et al. The Birds of Australia. London: Witherby & Co. 1910-1927. I am working my way through all the volumes on Internet Archive: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven. Mathews was an extreme splitter….so focus on the illustrations rather than the classifications. I am including some sample images from the volumes I’ve browsed so far.

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Herben, Beatrice Slayton; Richardson, Frederick. Jack O'Health and Peg O'Joy - a fairy tale. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1921. Available from Internet Archive here. I was interested in the illustrations by Frederick Richardson.

Littlejohns, John. British water-colour painting and painters of to-day. Toronto: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons. 1920. Available from Internet Archive here. Lots of variety in this collection. Some are what I expected but the one I picked for the sample image was a standout….something different.

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A Zentangle Prompt

RIBBON ROSE for the central tangle(s) and SHARD for the border/frame. Your choice whether to make the center or the frame first…. or create two tiles to try both!

Here are tiles based on the prompt: Make a tile where PHICOPS is the primary tangle. Feel free to fill out the tile with a tangle of your choice.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Summer clothes. The weather has finally gotten warm enough that I got out all my summer clothes and packed all the rest away in large suitcases that work better for out-of-season clothes than for traveling. Sometimes I leave out a few cool/cold weather clothes if we are planning a trip to the Rockies….but that is not happening this year. I also packed the t-shirts I wear for volunteering since that is not happening this summer either. The closet is less crowded. Another positive discovery – I have managed to get rid of clothes I wasn’t wearing in previous seasons; I only identified one item that is going in a giveaway pile!

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Chipmunk under the bird feeder. There was a chipmunk cleaning up under the bird. I hadn’t seen one recently although we have had them periodically since we moved to the house over 20 years ago. This one was examining each bit of debris although most were hulls rather than seeds.

Last iris. The last iris bud opened. It will be the last flower in my office until the day lilies start blooming. The day lilies are a little later than usual sending up their bud stalks because of the cooler-than-average weather. On the plus side – there is dense leaf growth which bodes well for the plants having lots of energy to bloom now that the temperatures are consistently warm.

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Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts  here.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/1/2020 – eBotanical prints

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

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Weighing in at a new low for the year. 0.6 pounds lower than my last ‘new low.’ I am celebrated with 2 squares of dark chocolate for breakfast!

Hearing the recycle truck at 6:25 AM. That’s their usual time. It’s reassuring to know that they are still on the job making their rounds…that some things continue at a normal pace. I am thankful to the crews to hoping they stay well.

Catching up on Cincinnati Zoo’s Home Safaris:

Making two Ad Rinehardt Black Painting inspired Zentangle® tiles. I didn’t make the whole tile black but I did make a black square. The technique was not the same either since I used Sharpies and layers rather than making the special matte low-oil paint that Rinehardt is known for. I finished the Rinehardt module in the Coursera course: In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting yesterday.

Taking breaks with nature cams. There are a lot of them out there! A post from the Nature Conservancy here (the spoonbills and alligators swamp cam can be very noisy in the morning – a great way to start the day – they are in the EDT zone). A list I collected from the Maryland Master Naturalist emails:

Clearing my calendar for April. I had left some volunteer gigs on my calendar in April – being overly optimistic. I took them off this morning. The organizations are closed. Everyone is preparing for the coronavirus peak in Maryland; as of today, the model is saying it will be around April 28th. Maryland has a stay at home order (since 3/30), all educational facilities are closed (since 3/16), and non-essential services were closed (since 3/23…and the definition of non-essential is not ‘loose’). It looks like the social distancing measures are flattening our curve but there have been some outbreaks that are troubling (nursing home and mental hospital) and sad.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts  here.

And now for the normal monthly post about botanical prints from eBooks.

There are 16 new books added to the list in March. There is quite a variety this month --- mostly from the 1800s although one book from the late 1700s and another from the early 1900s, some color others drawings, exotic places (Ceylon, India, Madagascar, and Australia), some traditional botanical prints and some textbooks of botanical traits.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet by clicking on the hyperlinked title. The whole list of 1,864 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 16 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view). Enjoy!

A hand-book to the flora of Ceylon Plates I-XXV * Trimen, Henry * sample image * 1893

A hand-book to the flora of Ceylon Plates XXVI-L * Trimen, Henry * sample image * 1893

A hand-book to the flora of Ceylon Plates LI-LXXV * Trimen, Henry * sample image * 1893

A hand-book to the flora of Ceylon Plates LXXVI-C * Trimen, Henry * sample image * 1893

The British flora, or, Genera and species of British plants V1 * Thornton, Robert John * sample image * 1812

The British flora, or, Genera and species of British plants V3 * Thornton, Robert John * sample image * 1812

Indian medicinal plants : plates * Kirtikara, Kanhoba Ranachodadasa; Basu, Saman Das * sample image * 1918

Histoire naturelle des plantes (Madagascar) Atlas V3  * Baillon, H; Drake del Castillo, E. * sample image * 1903

Histoire naturelle des plantes (Madagascar) Atlas V4 * Baillon, H; Drake del Castillo, E. * sample image * 1890

Histoire naturelle des plantes (Madagascar) Atlas V1 * Baillon, H; Drake del Castillo, E. * sample image * 1902

Histoire naturelle des plantes (Madagascar) Atlas V2 * Baillon, H; Drake del Castillo, E. * sample image * 1904

Giftpflanzen-Buch, oder, Allgemeine und besondere Naturgeschichte sämmtlicher inländischen sowie der wichtigsten ausländischen phanerogamischen und cryptogamischen Giftgewächse - Atlas * Berge, Friedrich * sample image * 1845

Traité de botanique générale V1 * Herincq, Francois * sample image * 1860

Traité de botanique générale V2 * Herincq, Francois * sample image * 1860

A specimen of the Botany of New Holland Vol 1 * Smith, James Edward * sample image * 1793

A course in botany and pharmacognosy * Kraemer, Henry * sample image * 1902

6 Free eBooks – March 2020

With so much time at home this month – I have browsed through many more online books and ramped up my monthly post about eBooks from 3 to 6. I’ve chosen 2 novels for their illustrations, 2 Ernst Haeckel collections, and 2 volumes from the 1840s with drawings of Yucatan ruins. Enjoy!

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Poe, Edgar Allan; Clarke, Harry (illustrator). Tales of Mystery and Imagination. London: George G. Harrap & Company Limited. 1923. Available from Internet Archive here. The illustrator, Harry Clarke, was also a stained-glass artist.

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Basswitz, Gerdt von. Peterchens Mondfahrt : ein Marchen. Berlin-Grunewald: Verlagsanstadlt Hermann Klemm AG. 1920. Available from Internet Archive here. The story started out as a stage play in 1912 in Leipzig; it became one of the best-loved German children’s books.

I found two collections of Ernst Haeckel’s works that I hadn’t found previously:

Radularia. Berlin: G. Reimer. 1862. Available from Internet Archive here.

Art Forms of Nature. Leipzig and Wien: Bibliographisches Institut. 1904. Available from Internet Archive here.

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Stephens, John Lloyd. Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1843. Available from Internet Archive: here. Frederick Catherwood made the drawings for both volumes. Stephens and Catherwood were important figures in the rediscovery of Mayan civilization.

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eBotanical Prints – February 2020

19 botanical eBooks found in February! There were two series about alpine plants and then one series about medicinal plants. The publication dates range from 1868 to 1971…although heavily skewed to the second half of the 1800s. I always enjoy looking at botanical print books but in February – when the view from my window is winter trees – I find them even more appealing.  

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of about 1,850 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 19 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view). Enjoy!

Common Weeds of the United States * Reed, Clyde Franklin * sample image * 1971

Atlas Rostlin * Joh, Jan * sample image * 1899

Atlas de la flora alpine V1 * Correvon, Henry * sample image * 1899

Atlas de la flora alpine V4 * Correvon, Henry * sample image * 1899

Atlas de la flora alpine V5 * Correvon, Henry * sample image * 1899

Fleurs des champs et des bois, des haies et des murs * Correvon, Henry * sample image * 1922

Atlas der Alpenflora V1 * Hartinger, Anton; Dalla Torre, Karl Wilhelm von * sample image * 1882

Atlas der Alpenflora V2 * Hartinger, Anton; Dalla Torre, Karl Wilhelm von * sample image * 1882

Atlas der Alpenflora V3 * Hartinger, Anton; Dalla Torre, Karl Wilhelm von * sample image * 1882

Atlas der Alpenflora V4 * Hartinger, Anton; Dalla Torre, Karl Wilhelm von * sample image * 1882

Atlas der officinellen Pflanzen - Band III * Berg, Otto Carl; Schmidt, C. F.: Meyer, Arthur * sample image * 1899

Atlas der officinellen Pflanzen - Band I * Berg, Otto Carl; Schmidt, C. F.: Meyer, Arthur * sample image * 1893

Pflanzen-Atlas nach dem Linné'schen System * Hoffman, Carl * sample image * 1881

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

Traité pratique et raisonné des plantes médicinales indigènes, avec un atlas de 200 planches lithographiées * Cazin, F.J.; Cazin, Henri * sample image * 1868

Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem Vol 1 * Kohler, Hermann Adolph; Pabst (Gustav);  (Walther Otto Müller, C. F. Schmidt, and K. Gunther illustrators) * sample image * 1887

Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem Vol 2 * Kohler, Hermann Adolph; Pabst (Gustav);  (Walther Otto Müller, C. F. Schmidt, and K. Gunther illustrators) * sample image * 1890

Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem Vol 3 * Kohler, Hermann Adolph; Pabst (Gustav);  (Walther Otto Müller, C. F. Schmidt, and K. Gunther illustrators) * sample image * 1898

Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem Vol 4 * Kohler, Hermann Adolph; Pabst (Gustav);  (Walther Otto Müller, C. F. Schmidt, and K. Gunther illustrators) * sample image * 1899

3 Free eBooks – February 2020

Three picks from my February browsing in Internet Archive…..so many books to choose from.

Richardson, Frederick (illustrator). Old, old tales retold - the best-beloved folk stories for children. Chicago and New York: M. AAA. Donohue & Company. 1923. Available from Internet Archive here. I wonder how many children in the 1920s had access to books like this one. My guess is that the books were mostly available in cities and to wealthier families.  There is a Wikipedia entry for Frederick Richardson that prompts me to look for other books that he illustrated. The metadata for books on Internet Archive does not always list the illustrator….so searching by title or the author of the text is required.

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Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. Vermont Life. Montpelier: Agency of Development and Community Affairs. A quarterly magazine published from 1946 – 2018…all available from Internet Archive here. I started out with the first issues and am now up to 2004. It is interesting to see how the state changed over that time. I enjoy all the seasons but picked a ‘spring’ picture since that is the season coming up.

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Scott, Jeffries, Samantha (editor). Homes & Antiques. Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited. A magazine with most issues from January 2015-March 2016 available from Internet Archive here. There were several pictures with shoes stored under the bed. Now I don’t feel as guilty about not putting my shoes in the closet floor as we did when I was growing up. At least half my shoes are by the door to outside or under my computer desk!

eBotanical Prints – January 2020

There were only 7 botanical print books in January because I shifted focus to volumes about shells last month. I finished up the ‘Illustrated dictionary of gardening’ volumes…enjoyed the drawings in a botany textbook by Asa Gray…marveled at how different woods look at the micro level.  The last two books (Familiar Trees) are from a series that I found back in 2015…but somehow I only looked at one of the three volumes then.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of more than 1800 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 7 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view) Enjoy!

3 Free eBooks – January 2020

Starting out the new year…I selected 3 books with an art and history skew from my accumulation of reading this month.

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Dillon, Edward. Glass. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. London: Methuen and Co. 1907. Available from Project Gutenberg here. The book is a history of glass (up until the early 1900s) with illustrations of pieces in museum collections. I paid more attention to the illustrations than the text. I’ve always been interested in ancient glass because it points to the step beyond basketry and pottery in our manufacturing expertise. It a material we think about as being ‘breakable’ but is often very enduring.

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Whitney, Frederick. Blackboard Sketching. Springfield, Massachusetts: Milton Bradley Company. 1909. Available from Internet Archive here. Written at a time when many students were learning to write and draw with blackboard slates and slate pencils…it provides an idea of how students were taught. Early classrooms used a lot less paper!

LaFontaine, Bruce. Bridges of the World Coloring Book. Dover Publication. 1994. Available from Internet Archive here. The bridges are organized chronologically. The sample image I show below is the colored version (as the end page of the book) of page 10…a bridge from China built about 1100. The book includes short descriptions the design features and technologies the bridge builders utilized. Obviously, these bridges have proven to be very durable.

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Enjoy these 3 online books!

Reeve’s Conchologia iconica

I usually select three eBooks to feature in a monthly post…and I’ll do that in a week or so. Today I want to feature a series of books I found recently on Internet Archive: Conchologia iconica, or, Illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals by Lovell Augustus Reeve. There are 20 volumes (Vol v.01 (1843), Vol v.02 (1843), Vol v.03 (1845), Vol v.04 (1847), Vol v.05 (1849), Vol v.06 (1851), Vol v.07 (1854), Vol v.08 (1855), Vol v.09 (1856), Vol v.10 (1858), Vol v.11 (1859), Vol v.12 (1860), Vol v.13 (1862), Vol v.14 (1864), Vol v.15 (1866), Vol v.16 (1866), Vol v.17 (1870), Vol v.18 (1873), Vol v.19 (1874), and Vol v.20 (1878)) all published in the mid-1800s. The author died in 1865 and the series was continued by George Brettingham Sowerby. Soweby did the plates for most of the volumes. I found a reference about the books that said: It will always remain a standard work, although many of the species which Reeve created are now held to be invalid. That’s probably to be expected given the many years since they were published; science is always learning more. Still – the plates are beautiful and provide a broad view of the variety of shells known at the time. I collected one plate from each volume to use with this post.

The question that I wonder about is how many of the mollusks that produced these shells have gone extinct in the intervening years. How many types of shells represented in the books are no longer grown? The International Union of Conservation of Nature lists 310 recently extinct species.

eBotanical Prints – December 2019

There are 7 more volumes of La Belgique Horticole from 1851-1885 that I added to the list in December (continuing from November). The month also includes some other books from the 1800s: shrubs of Ontario, thistles, field botany, and a 6-volume gardening dictionary. There were two volumes from 1949 about Malayan garden plants. All of them were found via Internet Archive.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of more than 1800 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 18 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view) Enjoy!

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V29 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1879

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V30 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1880

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V31 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1881

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V32 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1882

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V33 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1883

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V34 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1884

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V35 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1885

Malayan garden plants, no. 1-7 * Botanic Gardens (Singapore) * sample image * 1949

Malayan garden plants, no. 8-11 * Botanic Gardens (Singapore) * sample image * 1949

Shrubs of Ontario * Soper, James H.; Heimburger, Margaret L. * sample image * 1982

Illustrated description of thistles, etc., included within the provisions of the Thistle Act of 1890 * Mueller, Ferdinand * sample image * 1893

The field botanist's companion : comprising a familiar account, in the four seasons, of the most common of the wild flowering plants of the British Isles * Moore, Thomas * sample image * 1862

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division I - A to Car. * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1887

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division VI - Pin to Sci * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1887

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division VIII - supplement * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1889

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division II - F to O * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1884

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division III - P to S * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1884

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division III - Ero to Lav * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1887

5 Free eBooks – December 2019

I usually pick 3 books to feature in the monthly ‘free eBooks’ post; this month I am featuring 5. The titles all begin  “An Artist in…” and there were published between 1910 and 1915 although not by the same publisher. I think of them as a window into 5 places just before World War I: Spain, Egypt, Italy, Corfu and the Riviera. I am reminded that artists tend to correct ‘imperfections’ as they paint…even if they are trying for realism! Enjoy the scenes from over 100 years ago!

Michael, Arthur C. An Artist in Spain. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1914. Available from Internet Archive here.

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Tyndale, Walter. An Artist in Egypt. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1912. Available from Internet Archive here.

Tyndale, Walter. An Artist in Italy. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1913. Available from Internet Archive here.

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Atkinson, Sophie. An Artist in Corfu. London: Herbert & Daniel. 1913. Available from Internet Archive here.

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Tyndale, Walter. An Artist in the Riviera. New York: Hearst’s International Library Co. 1915. Available from Internet Archive here.

3 Free eBooks – November 2019

So many wonderful books available online. Here are three I explored this month.

Freer Gallery of Art. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; Smithsonian Institution. Annual Records for 2003-2010. Asiatica 2003-2010. 8 volumes available from Internet Archive here. Images (and short articles) from the annual record of these museums. I choose a sample image from each of the 8 volumes.

Mason, Otis Tufton. Aboriginal American Basketry: Studies in a Textile Art without Machinery. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1904. Available from Internet Archive here. A large book – over 800 pages with over 200 plates (a few in color). Some of the baskets are simple and utilitarian…other are works of art (and maybe still utilitarian as well).

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Cort, Louise Allison. Seto and Mino Ceramics. Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution. 1992. Available from Internet Archive here. Dark-glazed, conservative Chinese-inspired ceramics from two Japanese ceramics centers.

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eBotanical Prints – October 2019

It took be almost 3 months to few all the Revue Horticole volumes available on Internet Archive. The last 26 were in October! This month includes primarily volumes from 1897 to 1922. The last volume I looked at was from 1860 which did not have color plates (or maybe it was the scan that made everything black and white. This publication was for gardeners…encouraging introduction of new plants into the gardens of France. This publication was for gardeners…encouraging introduction of new plants into the gardens of France. Some of the plants would require conservatories or greenhouses…others were new varieties of vegetables (see the potato plate).

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of almost 1800 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 30 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view) Enjoy!

Revue Horticole (1897) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1897

Revue Horticole (1898) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1898

Revue Horticole (1899) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1899

Revue Horticole (1900) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1900

Revue Horticole (1901) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1901

Revue Horticole (1902) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1902

Revue Horticole (1903) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1903

Revue Horticole (1904) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1904

Revue Horticole (1905) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1905

Revue Horticole (1906) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1906

Revue Horticole (1907) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1907

Revue Horticole (1909) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1909

Revue Horticole (1910) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1910

Revue Horticole (1912) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1912

Revue Horticole (1913) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1913

Revue Horticole (1914) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1914

Revue Horticole (1915) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1915

Revue Horticole (1918) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1918

Revue Horticole (1919) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1919

Revue Horticole (1920) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1920

Revue Horticole (1921) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1921

Revue Horticole (1922) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1922

Revue Horticole (1911) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1911

Revue Horticole (1908) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1908

Revue Horticole (1916) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1916

Revue Horticole (1860) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1860

Free eBooks – October 2019

Beautiful images from 3 books published in the mid to late 1800s….

Takahashi, Eiji. Kodai moyo shikizu ko. Tokyo: Santokukai. 1850. Available from Internet Archive here. This book was a mix of scenes from nature and designs. I enjoyed both. The scene with herons reminded me of birds in the snow (I remembered years ago the Heron Cam at Cornell’s Sapsucker Pond showing a bird hunkered on their nest during a late season snow…keeping eggs warm. The design pages gave me lots of ideas for Zentangle® patterns!

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Colling, James Kellaway. Examples of English mediaeval foliage and coloured decoration, taken from buildings of the twelfth to the fifteenth century. London: author and BT Batsford. 1874. Available from Internet Archive here. More potential Zentangle® patterns…and I like the botanical skew…so many leaf and petal shapes! Colling was an architect that was well known for his architectural and decoration drawings and art.

Picard, Edmond. El Moghreb al Aksa : une mission belge au Maroc. Bruxelles: F. Larcier. 1889. Available from Internet Archive here. The author was a Belgian jurist and writer…and patron of the arts. I happened upon this book about Morocco (written in French so I was browsing for the pictures) while the Arab world was in the news again with the Turkish surge into Syria. Of course, the scenes in much of the Arab world have changed considerable since the 1890s…and much of what was historically precious and valued by inhabitants is pockmarked or destroyed with weaponry that didn’t exist until well after the 1890s. The main emotion, even from afar, is sadness for the peoples and the places.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

eBotantical Prints – September 2019

Thirty books added to the list of botanical ebooks collection this month. I am continuing to work my way through the annual volumes of Revue Horticole that I started in August; this month includes the volumes from 1865 to 1896…and there are still more to come in October! The magazine showed plants that were growing or being introduced to gardens in France at the time.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of over 1,700 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 30 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view) Enjoy!

Revue Horticole (1865) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1865

Revue Horticole (1866) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1866

Revue Horticole (1867) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1867

Revue Horticole (1868) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1868

Revue Horticole (1870) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1870

Revue Horticole (1872) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1872

Revue Horticole (1873) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1873

Revue Horticole (1874) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1874

Revue Horticole (1875) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1875

Revue Horticole (1876) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1876

Revue Horticole (1877) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1877

Revue Horticole (1878) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1878

Revue Horticole (1879) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1879

Revue Horticole (1880) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1880

Revue Horticole (1881) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1881

Revue Horticole (1882) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1882

Revue Horticole (1883) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1883

Revue Horticole (1884) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1884

Revue Horticole (1885) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1885

Revue Horticole (1886) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1886

Revue Horticole (1887) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1887

Revue Horticole (1888) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1888

Revue Horticole (1889) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1889

Revue Horticole (1890) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1890

Revue Horticole (1891) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1891

Revue Horticole (1892) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1892

Revue Horticole (1893) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1893

Revue Horticole (1894) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1894

Revue Horticole (1895) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1895

Revue Horticole (1896) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1896

Free eBooks – September 2019

Usually I feature 3 books. This time I am featuring one book…and a series of 10 books (6 of which I read in September).

Marriott, Charles. Modern Art – a collection of works in modern art. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. 1917. Available from Internet Archive here. A good selection of what was ‘modern’ during World War I. The illustrations are in color.

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Bushell, Stephen Wootton. Oriental Ceramic Art – illustrated examples from the collection of W.T. Walters. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1897. Ten volumes available from Internet Archive here. This collection formed the basis of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore that was formed by his son. Walters died in 1894; he had prepared parts of the volumes that were then edited and published after his death. I still have 4 volumes to savor…in October! I picked a sample image from each of the 6 I’ve already browsed for this post.

Georgina Burne Hetley

Georgina Burne Hetley is best known for her book The Native Flora of New Zealand. She worked in the 1880s at a time when increased cultivation was reducing the botanical diversity of New Zealand. The Wikipedia entry for Hetley notes that Trilepidea adamsii (previously known as Loranthus adamsii) – one of the plants she painted – is now extinct. As I read her biography, it sounded modern in the sense that many biologists now feel the sense of working against an environmental degradation clock just as she did to “paint New Zealand’s indigenous flora before it was destroyed by the advance of cultivation.” She appears to have started out as an artist…coming to botany work in her 40s.

I am including 6 sample images from the book in this post. It is well worth browsing the images online in the book itself available from Internet Archive here. It was published in London in 1888.

Note that Art Album of New Zealand Flora was published shortly after this book in 1889 in Wellington, New Zealand. It was published in two parts and is also available from Internet Archive (part 1 and part 2). I posted about these volumes back in March 2013.

eBotanical Prints – August 2019

Twenty-one books added to the list of botanical ebooks collection this month. They are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of over 1,700 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 21 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view) Enjoy!

These are not all the issues of Revue Horticole available from Internet Archive. I’m still working my way through issues in September!

Journal des Roses  (1906 ) * Cochet, M. Scipion * sample image * 1906

Manual of Grasses of the Unitied States * Hitchcock, Albert Spear; Chase, Agnes * sample image * 1950

The native flowers of New Zealand * Hetley, GB * sample image * 1888

Plantae utiliores V1 * Burnett, Mary Ann; Burnett, Gilbert Thomas * sample image * 1840

Plantae utiliores V2 * Burnett, Mary Ann; Burnett, Gilbert Thomas * sample image * 1840

Revue Horticole (1844-1845) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1845

Revue Horticole (1846) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1846

Revue Horticole (1847) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1847

Revue Horticole (1848) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1848

Revue Horticole (1850) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1850

Revue Horticole (1851) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1851

Revue Horticole (1849) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1849

Revue Horticole (1852) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1852

Revue Horticole (1853) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1853

Revue Horticole (1854) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1854

Revue Horticole (1855) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1855

Revue Horticole (1856) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1856

Revue Horticole (1861) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1861

Revue Horticole (1862) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1862

Revue Horticole (1863) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1863

Revue Horticole (1864) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1864