13 'The Spell of…. ' (eBooks)

The Spell of… books were published in the early 1900s by L.C. Page and Company of Boston – travel books with a few colored plates and drawings…more photographs…of the places they are about. Often the endpapers have scenic drawings. I’ve selected 13 that I have browsed recently for the slice of place and time they represent.

Mason, Caroline Atwater - The Spell of Italy (1909)

Hallays, Andre - The spell of Alsace (1919)

McCrackan, William D. - The spell of Tyrol (1914)

 Anderson, Isabel - The spell of Japan (1914)

Addison, Julia de Wolf - The Spell of England (1912)

Call, Frank Oliver -  The Spell of French Canada (1926)

 Mills, Enos A. - The Spell of the Rockies  (1911)

Call, Frank Oliver - The Spell of Acadia (1930)

McCrackan, William D. - The Spell of the Italian Lakes (1918)

 Mansfield, Milburg Fracisco - The spell of Algeria and Tunisia (1924)

George Catlin eBooks

George Catlin is well-known for his portrayals of Native American customs and individuals in the mid-1800s – at a time they were already being impacted by European cultures but were still living in much the same way as they had in the past. I have featuring 4 Catlin books available on Internet Archive; there are more than these four…all worth browsing. The books blend history and art!

O-Kee-pa : a religious ceremony; and other customs of the Mandans (1867)

Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians V1 (1876)

Last rambles amongst the Indians of the Rocky mountains and the Andes (1868)

Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium (1852)

George Catlin also published Shut your Mouth (also available from Internet Achive) based on his observations of Native American practice of encouraging nose breathing over mouth breathing…and that their teeth were always straight. He is quoted: “there is no person in society but who will find... improvement in health and enjoyment..." from keeping his or her mouth shut.

Mound City Glass (historical catalog)

The 1889 catalog of the Mound City Glass Company in St. Louis, Missouri showcases ornamental glass offerings. They did beveling, sand blasting and embossing….as well as having a stock of plate glass.

Catalogue from the Mound City Glass Co.

 Old catalogs reflect the availability and popularity of wares…become a historical record of consumerism of the period. In the late 1800s, the country had a wide range of housing from sod structures to the first skyscrapers. People needed windows to provide light inside those structures so improvements in plate glass production during the 1800s was welcomed. The type of glass produced by the Mound City Glass company must have been popular for anyone with enough money to purchase it…letting light in along with providing a decorative element.

There isn’t much information about the company other than the catalog. The address on the catalog was in downtown St. Louis…maybe the offices/showroom rather than where the glass work was done.  I assume that the ‘mound city’ in the name came from Cahokia mounds which are on the eastern side of the Mississippi across from St. Louis. There are places in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and South Dakota named Mound City; the one in Missouri is on the other side of the state - north of Kansas City close to the Missouri River; the one in Illinois is in far southern Illinois on the Ohio River which is their border with Kentucky; it doesn’t seem likely that either one would have been the location of the original manufacturing facility.

eBotanical Prints – April 2023

Twenty-one more books were added to the botanical print collection this month, and all are about orchids: the Australian Orchid Review from 2009 - 2012. I picked sample images that demonstrated the publications’ photography – particularly of orchids growing in natural settings. Most times people see orchids are in cultivated settings: conservatories, green houses, flower arrangements. Seeing them in the wild is a challenge. The ones native to North America are often small or rare…or both! The Australian Orchid Review has articles primarily on Australian orchid growing…and native orchids of Australia and its nearest neighbors.  I’ll continue browsing more volumes in May!

The whole list of 2,613 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the April 2023 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the April 2023 eBotanical Prints!

Australian Orchid Review 2012 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2012

Australian Orchid Review 2012 - 2013 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2013

Australian Orchid Review 2012 (June - July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2012

Australian Orchid Review 2012 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2012

Australian Orchid Review 2011 (February - March) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2011

Australian Orchid Review 2011 (June - July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2011

Australian Orchid Review 2011 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2011

Australian Orchid Review 2011 - 2012 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2012

Australian Orchid Review 2011 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2011

Australian Orchid Review 2011 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2011

Australian Orchid Review 2010 (February - March) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2010

Australian Orchid Review 2010 (June - July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2010

Australian Orchid Review 2010 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2010

Australian Orchid Review 2010 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2010

Australian Orchid Review 2010 - 2011 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2011

Australian Orchid Review 2010 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2010

Australian Orchid Review 2009 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2009

Australian Orchid Review 2009 (June - July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2009

Australian Orchid Review 2009 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2009

Australian Orchid Review 2009 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2009

Australian Orchid Review 2009 - 2010 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2010

Japanese Pottery

James Lord Bowes was a wealthy Liverpool (UK) wool broker that became an authority on Japan and its art. He published his 3-volume work about Japanese Pottery in 1890, the year he also opened the first museum in the western world dedicated to Japanese art. The books are available as eBooks from Internet Archive. Their publication in 1890 makes them historical…and they were, from the being, about art. Enjoy them from both perspectives!

William Burton and Pottery

William Burton was a chemist that worked at the Wedgewood Company and then Pilkington’s Lancastrian Pottery & Tiles. There are 4 books available on Internet Archive that he authored about pottery featured in this ‘book of the week post.’ It seems he was interested in more than the chemistry of pottery; he was also attuned to all the aspects of creating it…and enjoyed the beauty of the finished product too.

He does not have a Wikipedia entry of his own…but there is a paragraph about him in the Pilkington’s article. He evidentially was manager of the company – employing many artists and commissioning work from other artists of the time.

Porcelain, a sketch of its nature, art, and manufacture (1906)

A history and description of English earthenware and stoneware (to the beginning of the 19th century) (1904)

Josiah Wedgwood and his pottery (1922)

A history and description of the old French faïence, with an account of the revival of faïence painting in France (1903)

Nimrud: The Queens’ Tombs

The 4 tombs were discovered in the late 1980s in Iraq. The war that started during the excavation caused security issues that rushed the excavation of the last 2 tombs…and then the turmoil of the war caused the site and the institutions where artifacts were stored to be looted. A bank where the most valuable finds were held was bombed twice (in 1991 and 2003); the vault survived both bombings but the 2nd bombing caused enough damage that flooding then destroyed some of the objects. Much of Nimrud itself was destroyed by ISIL in 2015. There have been few international publications and no exhibitions.

So – the book was all new news to me; it was very much like looking at a catalog of King Tut’s tomb…but an entirely different culture (and gender). The book was published by the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 2016. Hopefully enough artifacts have survived to be exhibited at some point.

Nimrud - the Queen's Tombs by Muzahim Mahmoud Hussein, edited by McGuire Gibson and translated by Mark Altaweel (2016)

There are many wonderful images in the book. I selected 4 samples, but the book is well worth browsing in its entirety. The last image – the crown of Queen Hama – as found and after cleaning….bothered me. They said that the crown was filled with soil but elsewhere said that it was found atop her head. I wonder if there is any of that soil saved…whether it was the decomposed head of the queen rather than simply ‘soil.’ It reminded me that sometime archaeology – even when done with all the best practices and intended to help us under the past – is still very close to ‘grave robbing.’

eBotanical Prints – March 2023

Twenty more books were added to the botanical print collection this month and most are about orchids: 19 volumes of the Australian Orchid Review from 2012 to 2015. I picked sample images that demonstrated the publications’ photography and drawings. I’ll continue browsing more volumes in April! The very first volume on the list is the only one not from Internet Archive; it is a recently published book - Pollinator-Friendly Parks - that I am using as a reference as I reduce the ‘turf’ in my yard. It is available free from the Xerces Society.

The whole list of 2,592 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the March 2023 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the March 2023 eBotanical Prints!

Pollinator-Friendly Parks * Frischie, Stephanie; Code, Aimee; Shepherd, Matt; Black, Scott; Hoyle, Sarah; Selvaggio, Sharon; Laws, Angela; Dunham, Rachel; Vaughan, Mace * sample image * 2021

Australian Orchid Review 2015 (February - March) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2015

Australian Orchid Review 2015 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2015

Australian Orchid Review 2015 (June - July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2015

Australian Orchid Review 2015 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2015

Australian Orchid Review 2015 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2015

Australian Orchid Review 2015 - 2016 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2016

Australian Orchid Review 2014 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2014

Australian Orchid Review 2014 (June - July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2014

Australian Orchid Review 2014 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2014

Australian Orchid Review 2014 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2014

Australian Orchid Review 2014 - 2015 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2015

Australian Orchid Review 2013 (February - March) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2013

Australian Orchid Review 2013 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2013

Australian Orchid Review 2013 (June - July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2013

Australian Orchid Review 2013 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2013

Australian Orchid Review 2013 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2013

Australian Orchid Review 2013 - 2014 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2014

Australian Orchid Review 2012 (February - March) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2012

Australian Orchid Review 2012 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2012

Nazca Pottery of Ancient Peru

Max Uhle’s The Nazca Pottery of Ancient Peru is included in the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Sciences from February 1914. The same volume includes plates with Edward K. Putnam’s The Davenport Collection of Nazca and other Peruvian Pottery; I selected two of the Nazca plates as sample images. Nazca is most famous for the lines in the plain northwest of the city of Nazca in southern Peru; seeing the pottery adds another perspective on the culture that created the drawings etched into the Earth’s surface.

Nazca Pottery of Ancient Peru

 Max Uhle was a German archaeologist who worked in Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia in the early decades of the 20th century. Over the course of a very long career, he did field work and initiated archeological museums in South America. Most of the funding for field work came from the United States. Based on a biography by John Howland Rowe published in 1954, he spent most of his professional life in South America only returning to Germany in 1942 when Peru expelled Germans. He died in 1944.

Amid the High Hills

Sir Hugh Fraser published Amid the High Hills in 1923…100 years ago. He explains in the preface that the book is a collection of articles – some of which had been published before – and illustrated by friends. All the other books that he published (and that are available on Internet Archive) were career related (he was a British barrister and judge).  The Wikipedia biography cites no sources - is brief and unsatisfying since it doesn’t mention anything about the book except the title; I found myself reading between the lines of the book’s preface to fill in….that Sir Hugh Fraser enjoyed his vacations and friendships beyond the confines of his career that he evidently continued until his death in 1927.  The illustrations that his friends provided (pictures, sketches, photographs) are worth browsing the book; they capture the natural areas as they were in the early 1900s.

Amid the High Hills

Jessie Willcox Smith

Jessie Willcox Smith was an American illustrator during the Golden Age of American Illustration, perhaps “one of the greatest pure illustrators.” There are 8 volumes with her illustrations available from Internet Archive featured in this ‘eBooks-of-the Week.’ Enjoy the sample images….and follow the links to see more.

Illustration: Jessie Willcox Smith  (1935)

Heidi (Spyri, Johanna) (1922)

Dream Blocks (Higgins, Aileen Cleveland) (1908)

At the Back of the Northwind (MacDonald, George) (1919)

The Princess and the Goblin (MacDonald, George) (1920)

The Water-babies (Kingsley, Charles) (1916)

The Seven Ages of Childhood (Wells, Carolyn) (1909)

Dickens's Children: 10 drawings  (1912)

The brief biographies I found online indicate that the artist was able to financially support herself and others through her art; she was talented…and she benefited from the somewhat more open ideas of the early 1900s about women working. She lived in homes with gardens where she could allow her young models to run and play while she painted. Toward then end of her life, she traveled to Europe for the first time; a year of so after she returned, she died in her sleep at 71.

Wikipedia biography, Encyclopedia.com biography

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 11, 2023

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

800-year-old hoard unearthed in northern Germany – The picture of the earrings made me wonder how they were worn…and what stones once were held in the empty enclosures.

Firewood theft: The forests where trees are going missing – Evidently it is happening around the world…maybe caused by increasing heating costs and/or other fuels not available after a disaster or during a war.

Bald Eagles aren’t fledging as many chicks due to avian influenza – Oh no! I had gotten used to seeing bald eagles frequently near where I lived in Maryland. I had assumed that I didn’t see as many in Missouri because I didn’t know where to look – but it could have been that there are fewer birds to see anywhere.

New thought on Chaco Canyon Construction – A demonstration of how the timbers for building the complex structures at Chaco Canyon could have been carried the 60 miles from where the trees grew.

Sustainable process to produce vanillin from lignin makes further progress – Making the popular flavoring agent from lignin (a waste product from the wood pulping industry) rather a chemical process using petroleum.

Quilts from the Second World War tell the stories of the Canadian women who sewed them – A little Canadian history…the spirit of giving during a stressful time…sending artful warmth. Quilts have always appealed to me because they are functional art. My great-grandmother (in the US) made wedding quilts with/for her 5 daughters in the 1930s and 1940s…and now one of my sisters is talking about quilting being something she plans to do when she retires.

More Than Half Of New US Electricity Generating Capacity In 2023 Will Be Solar – Good! Evidently California and Texas are the states adding the most solar capacity.

Archaeologists Find Elite Residences at Mexico’s Chichén Itzá – Prior to this discovery, experts didn’t know any residential structures! What they found was a complex…two houses and a palace.

Air pollution speeds bone loss from osteoporosis – A study of a diverse cohort of over 160,000 postmenopausal women. The study found that nitrogen oxides are a major contributor to bone damage and that the lumbar spine is one of the most susceptible sites to this damage. This is another reason to improve air quality!

Photography In the National Parks: Capturing Atmospheric Phenomena – Being in the right place…noticing atmospheric phenomenon…and capturing the image. It reminded me of a trip we made back in 2007 to Cumberland State Park in Kentucky where we saw a moonbow; maybe we should go again!

Elenore Plaisted Abbott Illustrations

I picked four books illustrated by Elenore Plaisted Abbott as the ‘books of the week.’ They are all available to browse on Internet Archive. Enjoy!

The Wild Swans, and other stories - Andersen, Hans Christian (1922)

An Old Fashioned Girl - Alcott, Louisa M. - (1911)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - Carroll, Lewis (1916)

The flower maiden and other stories - Andersen, Hans Christian (1922)

As I read the Wikipedia entry for the artist, I realized that she spent most of her professional life not far from where I traveled the last years of my career – outside Philadelphia – in Rose Valley. The area where she lived is still far less developed than where I went for work!

eBotanical Prints – February 2023

Twenty more books were added to the botanical print collection this month and they are about orchids: 20 volumes of the Australian Orchid Review from 2016 to 2019. I picked sample images that demonstrated the publications’ photography and drawings. I’ll continue browsing more volumes in March!

The whole list of 2,572 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the February 2023 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the February 2023 eBotanical Prints!

Australian Orchid Review 2019 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2019

Australian Orchid Review 2019 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2019

Australian Orchid Review 2019 - 2020 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2020

Australian Orchid Review 2018 (February - March) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2018

Australian Orchid Review 2018 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2018

Australian Orchid Review 2018 (June - July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2018

Australian Orchid Review 2018 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2018

Australian Orchid Review 2018 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2018

Australian Orchid Review 2018 - 2019 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2019

Australian Orchid Review 2017 (February - March) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2017

Australian Orchid Review 2017 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2017

Australian Orchid Review 2017 (June - July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2017

Australian Orchid Review 2017 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2017

Australian Orchid Review 2017 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2017

Australian Orchid Review 2017 - 2018 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2018

Australian Orchid Review 2016 (February - March) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2016

Australian Orchid Review 2016 (August - September) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2016

Australian Orchid Review 2016 (October - November) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2016

Australian Orchid Review 2016 - 2017 (December - January) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2017

Australian Orchid Review 2016 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2016

Ceramics of Masayuki Imai

Like many other museums, The Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum has contributed many volumes to Internet Archive. This exhibit book from 1985 is just one example. Books made to sell in museum gift shops during an exhibit quickly go out of print so being able to browse them digitally is the best way to savor an exhibit whose contents has long scattered.

Masayuki Imai ceramic art 1985 : Peabody Museum of Salem, 21 March-21 May, 1985

I chose 3 images from the book as sample images for their shapes and subjects. I like all things botanical and there were a lot of plants featured in Imai’s work; there probably are not many pots that feature floating pitcher plants like his! Cranes might be a more popular decoration…but the shape of the pot was unusual. The color of the 3rd pot was different than the majority of the pots, making it stand out.

The book includes a short biography of the artist. I did a search but couldn’t find an updated one.

W. Westhoven – Engineer Artist

Six South African Scenes and verse  was published the year Wilhelm Westhoven died (1925) and contained 6 of his paintings. I selected two of the paintings for this post…encourage looking at the book on Internet Archive to see the other 4!

According to a brief biography on Artefacts, he was born in German in 1845, wrote a paper about the Forth Bridge in Scotland (a cantilever railway bridge), and emigrated to the Cape Colony in 1892 where he was an engineer in the Department of Public Works until he retired in 1904. After reading the biography…I checked to see if the paper Forth bridge was available on Internet Archive….and am looking forward to browsing through its illustrations (here).

Maria Martinez (potter) in 1925

The first picture in Carl E. Guthe’s  Pueblo Pottery Making - a study at the village of San Ildefonso published in 1925 is one of Maria Montoya Martinez that is widely used elsewhere (including in the Wikipedia entry for her). 1925 was before she started making her black ware pottery that survives in many museums. I recognized her name when I first started browsing the book; it was one of those times I appreciated Wikipedia and Google search to learn more about her before I continued browsing. I celebrated finding Guthe’s books on Internet Archive and the myriad pictures that documented the situation in 1925…the state of the art then, before she was producing black ware pottery.

1925 was during the time when much of the culture of the Pueblos was fading….the challenges of people trying to survive in the world. Fortunately, Maria learned pottery skills from her aunt… a “learning by seeing” beginning in her pre-teens. She, with the collaboration of her family members, continued to experiment and produce pottery throughout her long life (she lived until 1980) and taught others the same way she had learned. She helped establish pottery of the Southwest as an art form we recognize today.

Surprisingly, Guthe’s biography (archived from the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology) does not mention this book at all. His work establishing collections and institutions overshadows this book!

eBotanical Prints – January 2023

Twenty more books were added to the botanical print collection this month. Two series were from Australia: 8 volumes of A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus and 3 volumes of the Australian Orchid Review (there are many more volumes of the orchid review that I will browse in February). And there were two additional books about Australian plants: A manual of the grasses of New South Wales and How to know western Australian wildflowers.

The whole list of 2,552 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the January 2023 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the January 2023 eBotanical Prints!

The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants * Prusinkiewicz, Przemyslaw; Lindenmayer, Aristid * sample image * 1990

A Critical Revision of the genus Eucalyptus V1 * Maiden, Joseph Henry * sample image * 1909

A Critical Revision of the genus Eucalyptus V2 * Maiden, Joseph Henry * sample image * 1914

A Critical Revision of the genus Eucalyptus V3 * Maiden, Joseph Henry * sample image * 1917

A Critical Revision of the genus Eucalyptus V4 * Maiden, Joseph Henry * sample image * 1920

A Critical Revision of the genus Eucalyptus V5 * Maiden, Joseph Henry * sample image * 1922

A Critical Revision of the genus Eucalyptus V6 * Maiden, Joseph Henry * sample image * 1924

A Critical Revision of the genus Eucalyptus V7 * Maiden, Joseph Henry * sample image * 1929

A Critical Revision of the genus Eucalyptus V8 * Maiden, Joseph Henry * sample image * 1929

A Manual of the grasses in New South Wales * Maiden, Joseph Henry * sample image * 1898

Trees Of Northeastern United States Native And Naturalized * Brown, Harold Philip * sample image * 1938

Cotton in India * Sikka, S.M.; Singh, Arjan et al * sample image * 1962

House Plants * Van Tress, Robert * sample image * 1937

A description of the genus Pinus V1 * Bauer, Ferdinand; Lambert, Alymer Bourke * sample image * 1803

A description of the genus Pinus V2 * Bauer, Ferdinand; Lambert, Alymer Bourke * sample image * 1803

Malcolm Howie Watercolors * Howie, Malcolm * sample image * 1935

How to know Western Australian wildflowers : a key to the flora of the extratropical regions of Western Australia  * Blackall, William Edward * sample image * 1900

Australian Orchid Review 2019 (February - March) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2019

Australian Orchid Review 2019 (April - May) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2019

Australian Orchid Review 2019 (June July) * Orchid Society of New South Wales * sample image * 2019

Nutting’s ‘Beautiful’ eBooks

Wallace Nutting started out his adult life as a Congregational minister but retired at 43 because of ill health. His ‘second act’ (he lived to be 79 years old!) included photography and colonial furniture collecting and reproduction; his reproductions and photographs are still widely collected today. Both aspects are represented in books he published and are available on Internet Archive. The ‘Beautiful’ books reflect his travels; he was evidently an avid bicyclist and took up photography to document what he was seeing. Nutting’s pictures capture places as they existed in the 1920s; since he tended to photograph landscapes, some of the places might look very similar today. The only one not in the northeastern US is Ireland!

The Internet Archive also has Nutting’s book documenting Windsor chairs – which he collected and reproduced. I selected a child’s highchair as the sample image…remembering my daughter sitting in a similar chair for lunch the first time she visited Mount Vernon (Washington’s home) and we stopped for lunch at the restaurant there (back in 1990).

 He’s a great role model of redirecting your life in a positive direction after encountering a roadblock (like ill-health) on the path you thought would be yours.

Travels of Sven Hedin

The week’s book post includes 13 books…travel books written and illustrated by Sven Hedin from the late 1800s to the 1930s…available from Internet Archive. As usual – my interest was primarily in the illustrations which include drawings, watercolors, and photographs. The author was Swedish geographer, topographer, and explorer…and the books are his documentation of his work. His sketches of people and places…as well as a picture of himself outfitted for very cold weather in Tibet…make these books good windows into the places as they were.

Adventures in Tibet  (1904)

Bagdad, Babylon, Ninive   (1918)

Durch Asiens Wüsten : drei Jahre auf neuen Wegen in Pamir, Lop-nor, Tibet and China  (1919)

 Through Asia V1  (1898)

Through Asia V2  (1922)

 Southern Tibet  (1913)