Gobolinks

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I found a book published in 1896 – made available on Project Gutenberg – that is prompting a project: Gobolinks by Ruth McEnery Stuart and Albert Bigelow Paine.

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The book has a short introduction describing how to create the images (folding a paper…putting blots of ink on one side then closing the paper to create the ‘shadow’ side) and then some poetry about what the images ‘look like’ – goblins or insects or birds on a wire (lots of opportunity for imagination).

I decided to try some of my own gobolinks…using some food coloring that has been in the cabinet so long it had dried out completely. I rehydrated it and made a first attempt with some printer paper. Dropping the color from the food coloring bottles made huge, dark blobs!

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After a few days, I decided to try again with some lightweight cardboard/card stock tiles that I could later overlay with a Zentangle pattern. I folded them in different ways.

My plan was to make a drop of food coloring and then moved the color around with a toothpick before closing the fold. I quickly realized that the lightweight cardboard absorbed the food coloring very quickly (glad I had a newspaper layer underneath). The others turned out reasonably well although the color is very dark. I’ll use the white gel pen when I overlay the patterns.

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And I’ll dilute the color next time I make some Gobolink tiles!

Children of our Town (in 1902)

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The illustrations in Children of our Town were done by Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire….showing children as they were in towns and cities in 1902. The verses were written by Carolyn Wells and link the book to New York (i.e. a city) where it was published. Still – it’s interesting to browse the pictures and think about how reflective these images are of children of that era.

There are several indications that these were children of people that were well off:

  • they are always wearing shoes even in warm weather,

  • they are often at places that would have cost money (a merry-go-round, a zoo, an excursion boat),

  • they have equipment like skates and toys,

  • sometimes the adult with them appears to be a nanny or maid.

1902 is an interesting year in my perception of the time since my grandfathers were born in 1901 and 1903. Their situation would have been very different since they were not living in a city or town; they were part of a rural population that had enough to eat because they grew food but were generally challenged for things they couldn’t produce themselves. One of my grandfathers talked about going barefoot all the time as a child and also an instance where he fashioned shoes for himself out of shoe boxes when it was very cold. They also were more involved in the work of the farm as soon as they were old enough to gather eggs or pull weeds or scare birds away from the garden.  Whatever toys they had were ones they (or their parents) made from materials available to them (bark boats for the creek, clay from the creek bank, etc.). I wondered if they had marbles like the city children.

(Note - There is a version of Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses illustrated by the same artists available from Project Gutenberg published in 1928. It’s interesting to see how the work of these artists evolved over time.)

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

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Mowing leaves. I made a first mulching of leaves on our yard. The oak and sycamore are beginning to drop their leaves and those leaves are big enough to form mats if they are not mowed to bits at the right time. From now on the mowing will be more about leaves than grass!

Winding down in the cutting garden. There are fewer flowers in the CSA’s cutting garden. I cut fewer this week.

At some point I’ll be making very different kinds of bouquets – may some amaranths and seed pods. The stevia and fennel had the tops cut off  (appeared like it was done just a few hours before I got there) so I gathered the clippings that were on top of the remaining plants and have the stevia clipped and drying on a tray. The fennel seed heads are still in a bag. I haven’t quite figured out how to handle them.  

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The cooler temps mean that we have lettuces again. We got two single-salad size lettuces this week and they look almost like flowers (and are edible)!

eBotanical Prints – August 2020

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20 botanical eBooks in August 2020! The time range is quite long in this group from 1700 to 1999. The 4 Weinmann books are the only ones in color this month and they are quite old – from the 1700s.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of 1963 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 20 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view). Enjoy!

Phytanthoza iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquot millium V1 * Weinmann, Johnn Wilhelm et all * sample image * 1737

Phytanthoza iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquot millium V2 * Weinmann, Johnn Wilhelm et all * sample image * 1737

Phytanthoza iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquot millium V3 * Weinmann, Johnn Wilhelm et all * sample image * 1737

Phytanthoza iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquot millium V4 * Weinmann, Johnn Wilhelm et all * sample image * 1737

The Agricultural Grasses of the United States * Vasey, George; Richardson, Clifford, US Division of Botany * sample image * 1884

Pomona, or, The fruit-garden illustrated - containing sure methods for improving all the best kinds of fruits now extant in England * Langley, Batty * sample image * 1719

Icones pleurothallidinarum V76 1999 * Luer, Carlyle A. * sample image * 1999

Icones pleurothallidinarum V39 1991 * Luer, Carlyle A. * sample image * 1991

Jacobi Zanonii Rariorum stirpium historia : ex parte olim edita, nunc centum plus tabulis ex commentariis auctoris  * Zanoni, Giacomo * sample image * 1742

Institutiones rei herbariae V2 * Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de * sample image * 1700

An illustrated guide to the flowering plants of the middle Atlantic and New England states * Stevens, George Thomas * sample image * 1910

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XXXVIII - 1900 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1900

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XXXI - 1893 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1893

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign LVII - 1919 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1919

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XLIV - 1906 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1906

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XLVI - 1908 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1908

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XXV - 1887 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1887

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XXII - 1884 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1884

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign LIII - 1915 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1915

Botany of to-day, a popular account of recent notable discoveries * Eliot, George Francis Scott * sample image * 1911

3 Free eBooks – August 2020

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The Internet Archive is such a great resource. I’ve been thinking recently about how frustrating it was when I was growing up – getting to the library…finding something in the card catalog then discovering that it wasn’t available. Or going to the ‘Books in Print’ reference and finding a reference to a book that I wanted to get…but then finding the library didn’t have it and didn’t have an easy way to get it. Periodicals were in thick bound volumes….if the library had the publication. Somehow my hours at the library were more frustrating than enlightening. I became aware early on that ‘research’ in the library was not as productive as I wanted it to be. Now we have access to so much via a simple search on the internet; the more challenging problem is checking the validity of the references found.

The items I find on Internet Archive are general books that are dated…but reflect a perspective of the time they were written/created. I tend to look more at the images than read the text….but what a rich experience that level of browsing can be!

Grindon, Leo H. Lancashire – brief historical and descriptive notes. London: Seeley and Co. 1892. Available from Internet Archive here. I gleaned images from the book that depict children…an immigrant mother hunched over her baby, children out and about in wet or cold weather, a dinner hour where a younger girl appears to be barefoot and without a shawl/scarf, and then children working in a cotton factory and glass-blowing. The late 1800s were a time when some children started working early in their teens and worked long hours….enough that it impacted their health (i.e. rickets, lung problems).

Holland, Clive. Things seen in Japan. London: Seeley and Co. 1911. Available from Internet Archive here. Again – I selected pictures that include children. In the first one I noticed the shoes – placed on the ground under the bench…and what about the other child on the bench a little further away. The ‘big sisters’ in the other picture look a little tired…and how did the photographer know that the babies were all ‘little brothers’?

Sakai Hoitsu (Japanese, 1761-1828). The slideshow of this artist’s work is available from Internet Archive here. Do you recognize the deciduous magnolia?

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

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Watermelon symmetry. I cut the watermelon crosswise and noticed the 6 spirals…3 sets of 2 back-to-back spirals. Even familiar foods can surprise us! Maybe this could be a prompt for a hexagonal Zentangle pattern. Some paintings of watermelons before modern plant breeding show the 6 segments more clearly.

eBotanical Prints - June 2020

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25 botanical eBooks found in June 2020! The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of 1,920 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 26 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view). Enjoy!

There are several series this month:

  • 7 issues of The English Garden magazine from the mid-2010s

  • 2 issues of Your Garden magazine from the 2010s

  • 2 volumes from Asa Gray published in the mid-1800s

  • 2 volumes from Johann Zorn published in the 1790s

  • 2 volumes of camellias from the mid-1800s

  • 2 volumes from H.A. Weddell from the mid-1800s

  • 3 volumes from Augustine Pyramus de Candolle from the early to mid-1800s

The most surprising to me was the Hesperides, sive, De malorvm avreorvm cvltvra et vsv libri quatuor by Giovanni Battista Ferrari published in 1646….about citrus fruits. The wild forms are quite different than the ones we know today in the grocery store!

Recueil de planches de botanique de l'encyclopédie * Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de * sample image * 1823

English Flower Garden:a monthly magazine of hardy and half-hardy plants * Thompson, William * sample image * 1852

The English Garden - October 2015 * Mahon, Stephanie * sample image * 2015

The English Garden - July 2015 * Mahon, Stephanie * sample image * 2015

The English Garden - December 2015 * Mahon, Stephanie * sample image * 2015

The English Garden - January 2016 * Foggett, Clare * sample image * 2016

The English Garden - April 2016 * Foggett, Clare * sample image * 2016

The English Garden - August 2015 UK * Mahon, Stephanie * sample image * 2015

The English Garden - September 2015 UK * Mahon, Stephanie * sample image * 2015

Your Garden - Autumn 2016 * Colls, Stephanie * sample image * 2016

Your Garden - Autumn 2011 * Lee, Mara * sample image * 2011

Genera florae Americae boreali-orientalis illustrata. The genera of the plants of the United States illustrated by figures and analyses from nature V1 * Gray, Asa; Strague, Isaac * sample image * 1848

Genera florae Americae boreali-orientalis illustrata. The genera of the plants of the United States illustrated by figures and analyses from nature V2 * Gray, Asa; Strague, Isaac * sample image * 1848

Auswahl schöner und seltener Gewächse als eine Fortsetzung der Amerikanischen Gewächse. Erstes [-Drittes] Hundert. V1 * Zorn, Johann * sample image * 1795

Auswahl schöner und seltener Gewächse als eine Fortsetzung der Amerikanischen Gewächse. Erstes [-Drittes] Hundert. V2 * Zorn, Johann * sample image * 1796

Iconographie du genre Camellia V1 * Berlese, Lorenzo * sample image * 1841

Iconographie du genre Camellia V2 * Berlese, Lorenzo * sample image * 1843

Iconographie du genre Camellia V3 * Berlese, Lorenzo * sample image * 1843

Chloris andina essai d'une flore de la region alpine des Cordilleres de l'Amerique du Sud 1855 V1 * Weddell, H.A. * sample image * 1855

Chloris andina essai d'une flore de la region alpine des Cordilleres de l'Amerique du Sud 1857 V2 * Weddell, H.A. * sample image * 1857

Hesperides, sive, De malorvm avreorvm cvltvra et vsv libri quatuor * Ferrari, Giovanni Battista * sample image * 1646

Icones pictae plantarum rariorum descriptionibus et observationibus illustratae * Smith, James Edward * sample image * 1790

Icones selectae plantarum quas in systemate universali ex herbariis parisiensibus, praesertim ex Lessertiano V1 * Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de; Turpin, PJF; Delessert, Benjamin * sample image * 1820

Icones selectae plantarum quas in systemate universali ex herbariis parisiensibus, praesertim ex Lessertiano V2 * Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de; Turpin, PJF; Delessert, Benjamin * sample image * 1823

Icones selectae plantarum quas in systemate universali ex herbariis parisiensibus, praesertim ex Lessertiano V3 * Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de; Turpin, PJF; Delessert, Benjamin * sample image * 1838

New Masks

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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