eBotanical Prints – March 2026

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in March – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive.   I continued working my way through the Carnivorous Plant Newsletters; there are 4 volumes per year so I only browsed late 1999 to 2004 in March; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in April.

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,323 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from March’s 20 books below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.

Enjoy the March 2026 eBotanical Prints!

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.28:no.2 (1999)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1999

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.28:no.3 (1999)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1999

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.28:no.4 (1999)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1999

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.29:no.1 (2000)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2000

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.29:no.2 (2000)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2000

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.29:no.3 (2000)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2000

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.29:no.4 (2000)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2000

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.30:no.1 (2001)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2001

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.30:no.2 (2001)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2001

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.30:no.3 (2001)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2001

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.30:no.4 (2001)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2001

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.31:no.1 (2002)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2002

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.31:no.2 (2002)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2002

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.31:no.3 (2002)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2002

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.31:no.4 (2002)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2002

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.32:no.1 (2003)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2003

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.32:no.2 (2003)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2003

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.32:no.3 (2003)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2003

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.32:no.4 (2003)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2003

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.33:no.1 (2004)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Album of flowers and birds

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My ‘book of the week’ selection is a manuscript of 50 tempera, water- and bodycolor drawings. The original is held by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, Virginia and is available online at Internet Archive; the foundation is evidently working to digitize the collection accumulated by Rachel (“Bunny”) Lambert Mellon in the Oak Spring Garden Library.  This manuscript is not dated and the authors are unknown but it has Chinese circular red stamps on the first drawing and the back endpaper so is attributed generically to ‘Chinese School.’

 Images of plants and wildlife (insects, birds) always appeals to me. I like the artistic techniques of the collection as well. Enjoy browsing the book online!

 Album of flowers and birds

eBotanical Prints – February 2026

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in February – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive.   I continued working my way through the Carnivorous Plant Newsletters; there are 4 volumes per year so I only browsed late 1994 to 1999 in February; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in March.

I couldn’t resist 2 books I happened upon from the early 1800s by Elizabeth Warton….no photographs in those vintage books!

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,303 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from February’s 20 books below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.

Enjoy the February 2026 eBotanical Prints!

British Seaweeds * Warton, Elizabeth and Margaret * sample image * 1827

British Flowers * Warton, Elizabeth and Margaret * sample image * 1811

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.23:no.3 (1994)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1994

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.23:no.4 (1994)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1994

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.24:no.1 (1995)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1995

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.24:no.2 (1995)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1995

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.24:no.4 (1995)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1995

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.25:no.1 (1996)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1996

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.25:no.2 (1996)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1996

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.25:no.3 (1996)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1996

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.25:no.4 (1996)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1996

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.26:no.1 (1997)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1997

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.26:no.2 (1997)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1997

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.26:no.3 (1997)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1997

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.26:no.4 (1997)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1997

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.27:no.1 (1998)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1998

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.27:no.2 (1998)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1998

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.27:no.3 (1998)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1998

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.27:no.4 (1998)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1998

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.28:no.1 (1999)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1999

Form Givers

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Mid-Century Architecture was the subject of the Form Givers exhibit of 1959. The exhibit book is the week’s Book of the Week and is available from Internet Archive. The exhibit was organized and sponsored by Time Magazine for The American Federation of Arts. The Corcoran Gallery of Art was one of the museums to host the exhibit. I was a little surprised that there was no west coast museum (the furthest west was The Minneapolis Institute of Arts) on the list of museums even though there were examples of some west coast structures featured in the photographs.

The quote from Henry R. Luce on the title page (“…and we will succeed in creating the first modern, technological, humane, prosperous, and reverent civilization. This creative response to challenge will be most vividly expressed in and by architecture.”) reflects the optimism about the future in the late 1950s….a time just before I started school.  

Form givers

eBotanical Prints – January 2026

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in January – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive.   I started working my way through the Carnivorous Plant Newsletters in December; there are 4 volumes per year so I only browsed late 1980s and into the 1990s in January; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in February.

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,283 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from January’s 20 books below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.

Enjoy the January 2026 eBotanical Prints!

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.14:no.4 (1985) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1985

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.15:no.1 (1986) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1986

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.15:no.2 (1986) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1986

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.16:no.1 (1987) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1987

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.16:no.2 (1987) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1987

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.16:no.3 (1987) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1987

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.16:no.4 (1987) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1987

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.17:no.1 (1988) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1988

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.17:no.2 (1988) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1988

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.17:no.3 (1988) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1988

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.17:no.4 (1988) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1988

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.18:no.1 (1989) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1989

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.18:no.2 (1989) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1989

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.18:no.3 (1989) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1989

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.18:no.4 (1989) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1989

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.20:no.3 (1991) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1991

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.20:no.4 (1991) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1991

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.21:no.3 (1992) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1992

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.22:no.3 (1993) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1993

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.23:no.2 (1994) *California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum*sample image*1994

Jardine’s Hummingbirds

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Sir William Jardine was a Scottish naturalist in the 1800s. He edited a series of natural history books; two of them (about hummingbirds) are the pick for this week’s eBooks. They were published in 1833 and 1836 respectively and are available from Internet Archive. I picked two images from each volume…many more are available in these volumes.

 The natural history of humming birds V1

The natural history of humming birds V2

Life Magazine in 1945

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Internet Archive has digitized versions of many Life Magazines. I have been browsing through them – slowly since there was an issue for each week. As I looked at the issues from 1945, it seemed that the was pivotal: the atrocities in Europe were in the news more and trials were starting for German leader that had not killed themselves….the US succeeded in ending the war with Japan by using atomic bombs.  The industry that supplied the war was being scrapped or turned to civilian uses. (Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version and the links to see the whole magazine online.)

Life Magazine 1945-01-01 - 5,000 tires wear out on the western front every 24 hours

Life Magazine 1945-01-08 - Evening of July 25 in Normandy (painting)

Life Magazine 1945-01-15 - Granite stones for Hitler’s victory monument

Life Magazine 1945-01-22 - Western Electric ad

Life Magazine 1945-01-29 - Vegetable of War in the Southwest

Life Magazine 1945-02-05 - Murder in the Snow (where Germans shot US prisoners

Life Magazine 1945-02-12 - Trench foot

Life Magazine 1945-02-19 - Dalai Lama

Life Magazine 1945-02-26 - Soldiers in Germany (winter)

 Life Magazine 1945-03-05 - Iwo Jima

Life Magazine 1945-03-12 - Glass manufacturing

Life Magazine 1945-03-19 - Germans crumble in the west

Life Magazine 1945-03-26 - German girl in ruins of Cologne

Life Magazine 1945-04-02 - Coca Cola ad

Life Magazine 1945-04-09 - American paratrooper….east of the Rhine

Life Magazine 1945-04-16 - Ford ad

Life Magazine 1945-04-23 - Roosevelt's death

Life Magazine 1945-04-30 - Hitler's hideout

 Life Magazine 1945-05-07 - Belsen

Life Magazine 1945-05-14 - Nazi suicides

Life Magazine 1945-05-21 - London goes wild on VE day

Life Magazine 1945-05-28 - Okinawa

Life Magazine 1945-06-04 - Battered face of Germany

Life Magazine 1945-06-11 - Middle East oil

Life Magazine 1945-06-18 - Americans battle for Okinawa

Life Magazine 1945-06-25 - Harry Truman's Missouri

 Life Magazine 1945-07-02 - Hitler's eyrie

Life Magazine 1945-07-09 - Japanese surrenders are increasing

Life Magazine 1945-07-16 - Caricatures of correspondents

Life Magazine 1945-07-23 - Berlin

Life Magazine 1945-07-30 - Postwar Jeep

Life Magazine 1945-08-06 - Empire State Building fire

Life Magazine 1945-08-13 - General Motors: refrigerators and airplane propeller blades

Life Magazine 1945-08-20 - Atomic bomb

Life Magazine 1945-08-27 - Victorious China

 Life Magazine 1945-09-03 - Planes scrapped

Life Magazine 1945-09-10 - Battered Tokyo

Life Magazine 1945-09-17 - Hiroshima

Life Magazine 1945-09-24 - Coca Cola ad

Life Magazine 1945-10-01 - International Harvester ad

Life Magazine 1945-10-08 - Masks worn in Hiroshima

Life Magazine 1945-10-15 - Nagasaki

Life Magazine 1945-10-22 - USS Battan in Panama Canal

Life Magazine 1945-10-29 - USS Enterprise I New York Harbor

 Life Magazine 1945-11-05 - Solar eclipse

Life Magazine 1945-11-12 - Waterfront fire - Chicago

Life Magazine 1945-11-19 - British brides

Life Magazine 1945-11-26 - Graveyard of US Liberty ships

Life Magazine 1945-12-03 - Berlin children

Life Magazine 1945-12-10 - International Harvester ad

Life Magazine 1945-12-17 - Housing shortage

Life Magazine 1945-12-24 - Tom Wolf and Asheville NC

Life Magazine 1945-12-31 - Big snow in Buffalo

eBotanical Prints – December 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in December – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive.   I started working my way through the Carnivorous Plant Newsletters in December; there are 4 volumes per year so I only browsed the first ones from the first half of the 1980s; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in January.

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,263 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from December’s 20 books below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.

Enjoy the December 2025 eBotanical Prints!

Hortus Lindenianus : recueil iconographique des plantes nouvelles introduites par l'établissement * Linden, Jean Jules * sample image * 1859

Indicateur de Maine et Loire V2 * Millet de La Turtaudière, Pierre-Aimé * sample image * 1864

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.10:no.1 (1981)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1981

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.10:no.2 (1981)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1981

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.10:no.3 (1981)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1981

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.10:no.4 (1981)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1981

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.11:no.1 (1982)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1982

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.11:no.2 (1982)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1982

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.11:no.3 (1982)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1982

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.12:no.1 (1983)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1983

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.12:no.2 (1983)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1983

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.12:no.3 (1983)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1983

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.12:no.4 (1983)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1983

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.13:no.1 (1984)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1984

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.13:no.2 (1984)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1984

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.13:no.3 (1984)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1984

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.13:no.4 (1984)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1984

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.14:no.1 (1985)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1985

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.14:no.2 (1985)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1985

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.14:no.3 (1985)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 1985

Louise Herreshoff

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The book I am highlighting this week is the exhibit book from a 1976 exhibit of Louise Herreshoff paintings at Washington and Lee University and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. When the artist died in 1967, she had not painted since her aunt (her foster mother) had died in 1927; her paintings were discovered when movers came to move her extensive porcelain collection from her home to Washington and Lee University – as directed by her will! The book is available from Internet Archive.

 Louise Herreshoff: An American Artist Discovered

Weggeloopen!

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"Weggeloopen!" was published in 1919 – a story about a mischievous boy named Paul, who frequently disobeys his parents and often gets into trouble. The illustrator was Cecil Aldin – a British artist and illustrator. The book contains many of his drawings which depict the time in the first decades of the 1900s. It is available from Project Gutenberg.

Weggeloopen!!

There are quite a few books illustrated by Cecil Aldin available on Internet Archive, but this is the only one not in English! Because of the publication date, I wondered if the illustrations for this book were done after his only son died in World War I in 1916.

Life Magazine in 1944

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Internet Archive has digitized versions of many Life Magazines. I have been browsing through them – slowly since there was an issue for each week. As I looked at the issues from 1944, I thought about how the US was focused on the war and, while the war seemed to be moving in favor of the Allies, it was brutal. Casualties were mounting and at the end of the year the battle was still raging on. (Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version and the links to see the whole magazine online.)

 Life Magazine 1944-01-03 - US civilians buy their first jeep

Life Magazine 1944-01-10 - Bob Hope

Life Magazine 1944-01-17 - Rockets

Life Magazine 1944-01-24 - X-rays

Life Magazine 1944-01-31 - Yesterday’s battlefield

Life Magazine 1944-02-07 - USS Missouri

Life Magazine 1944-02-14 - Kansas raises fine families

Life Magazine 1944-02-21 - Evacuation hospital

Life Magazine 1944-02-28 - Pullman ad

Life Magazine 1944-03-06 - Belmont Radio ad

Life Magazine 1944-03-13 - Attu Island

Life Magazine 1944-03-13 - Tule Lake Hospital (Japanese Interment)

Life Magazine 1944-03-27 - Worst garden weeds

Life Magazine 1944-04-03 - Oil wells

Life Magazine 1944-04-10 - Dyslexia

Life Magazine 1944-04-17 - April snow in New York City

Life Magazine 1944-04-24 - Spring 1944

 Life Magazine 1944-05-01 - Ruined Anzio

Life Magazine 1944-05-08 - Steamboat on the Mississippi

Life Magazine 1944-05-15 - Troop train

Life Magazine 1944-05-22 - In the Aleutians

Life Magazine 1944-05-29 - US submarine saves airmen

Life Magazine 1944-06-05 - Woman in California shipbuilding

Life Magazine 1944-06-12 - Rome falls

Life Magazine 1944-06-19 - Ships bring back wounded and dead

Life Magazine 1944-06-26 - Palmyra atoll

 Life Magazine 1944-07-03 - Taps Normandy: June 1944

Life Magazine 1944-07-10 - B-29

Life Magazine 1944-07-17 - Penicillin

Life Magazine 1944-07-24 - War ravages Italy’s art

Life Magazine 1944-07-31 - Infantile paralysis (polio)

Life Magazine 1944-08-07 - Swedish glass

Life Magazine 1944-08-14 - Marshal Tito

Life Magazine 1944-08-21 - Truman of Missouri

Life Magazine 1944-08-28 - Invasion array

 Life Magazine 1944-09-04 - Korea

Life Magazine 1944-09-11 - Dutch Elm Disease

Life Magazine 1944-09-18 - Brussels

Life Magazine 1944-09-25 - US production soars

Life Magazine 1944-10-02 - First battle of German begins

Life Magazine 1944-10-09 - Wartime England

Life Magazine 1944-10-16 - Fading Newport

Life Magazine 1944-10-23 - Colorado River

Life Magazine 1944-10-30 - Omaha Beach

 Life Magazine 1944-11-06 - Kitchen preview

Life Magazine 1944-11-13 - Sea floods Holland

Life Magazine 1944-11-20 - Roosevelt wins a 3rd term

Life Magazine 1944-11-27 - Moscow

Life Magazine 1944-12-04 - Hitler

Life Magazine 1944-12-11 - List of US war causalities

Life Magazine 1944-12-18 - The battlefield of Germany

Life Magazine 1944-12-25 - Civil War breaks out in Greece

Life Magazine in 1943

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Internet Archive has digitized versions of many Life Magazines. I have been browsing through them – slowly since there was an issue for each week. As I looked at the issues from 1943, the ads that almost always have a linkage to the war stand out. Every issue had one or more articles about the war too. The magazine depicted a country pulling hard to support the military and the war effort.

Life Magazine 1943-01-04

Life Magazine 1943-01-11

Life Magazine 1943-01-18

Life Magazine 1943-01-25

Life Magazine 1943-02-01

Life Magazine 1943-02-08

Life Magazine 1943-02-15

Life Magazine 1943-02-22

eBotanical Prints – October 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in October – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive.  The publication dates span from 1750 (Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini – the second on the list) to 2007 (Benjamin Smith Barton: naturalist and physician in Jeffersonian America…the seventh on the list). There are two series:

Revue bretonne de botanique pure et appliquée from the early 1900s. The volumes were edited by Lucien Daniel, a professor of applied botany at the University of Rennes.

Bothalia, a publication of the National Herbarium at the University of South Africa in Pretoria from the 1920s and 1930s.

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,223 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from October’s 20 books below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.

Enjoy the October 2025 eBotanical Prints

Collection des fleurs et des fruits, peints d'après nature * Prevost, Jean Louis, The Younger * sample image * 1805

Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini * Ehret, Georg Dionysius; Haid, Johann Jacob; Trew, Christoph Jacob * sample image * 1750

Revue bretonne de botanique pure et appliquée no. 1-2 * Daniel, Lucien * sample image * 1906

Revue bretonne de botanique pure et appliquée no.5-6 * Daniel, Lucien * sample image * 1910

Revue bretonne de botanique pure et appliquée no.7-8 * Daniel, Lucien * sample image * 1912

Botanicum medicinale : an herbal of medicinal plants on the College of Physicians list * Sheldrake, Timothy et al * sample image * 1768

Benjamin Smith Barton :naturalist and physician in Jeffersonian America * Crosby, Marshall R.; Duggan, Eileen P.; Ewan, Nesta; Hollowell, Victoria C. * sample image * 2007

Revisión de las especies de Paspalum para América del Sur austral * Zuloaga, Fernando O.; Morrone, Osvaldo * sample image * 2005

Botanical illustration * King, Ronald * sample image * 1978

An album of Chinese flora * Chinese School * sample image * 1800

Collection of fruit bearing plants executed by one or more Chinese artists for Dr. Thomas Ward * Chinese School * sample image * 1828

The culture of the Central American rubber tree: botanical investigations and experiments * Cook, Orator Fuller * sample image * 1903

The Chayote: a tropical fruit * Cook, Orator Fuller * sample image * 1901

Bothalia - V1 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1924

Bothalia - V2 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1928

Bothalia - V3 Part 1 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1930

Bothalia - V3 Part 2 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1937

Bothalia - V3 Part 3 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1938

Bothalia - V3 Part 4 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1939

Bothalia - V4 Part 1 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1941

Life Magazine in 1942

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Internet Archive has digitized versions of many Life Magazines. I have been browsing through them – slowly since there was an issue for each week. As I looked at the issues from 1942, I saw the impact of Pearl Harbor on the nation and the magazine. There every week there were articles about the war and even the ads contained references to the war. It was a voice that both reported on and promoted the active support of the war effort by everyone.

(Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version and the links to see the whole magazine online.)

 Life Magazine 1942-01-05

Life Magazine 1942-01-12

Life Magazine 1942-01-19

Life Magazine 1942-01-26

Life Magazine 1942-02-02

Life Magazine 1942-02-09

Life Magazine 1942-02-16

Life Magazine 1942-02-23

Charles H. Bennett – Illustrator

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Charles H. Bennett was a British illustrator; 5 of his books that are available from Internet Archive are this week’s pick for eBooks. They were published between 1857 and 1872; the last one was published after his death in 1867.

He died early leaving his wife with 8 children and another on the way; his colleagues thought so highly of him that they raised funds to help the widow – enough that more than a decade after his death she claim to have ‘means derived from dividends.’

Andrew Garrett’s Fishes

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Andrew Garrett was an American explorer, naturalist, and illustrator. He was born in Vermont in 1823 but spent most of his life (from 1857 to 1887) on pacific islands including Hawaii from 1857-1863). He was completely self-taught…became a skilled artist and adventurer/scientist of shells and fishes. The 7 volumes that are my ‘book of the week’ are his watercolors of fishes; they are available from Internet Archive. This work became the baseline of south sea fishes for the next generation of ichthyologists.

 Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V1

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V2

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V3

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V4

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V5

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V6

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V7

eBotanical Prints – September 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in September - available for browsing on Internet Archive.  The publication dates span over 300 years – 1570 to 1888!

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,203 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from September’s 20 books below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.

Enjoy the September 2025 eBotanical Prints!

Album of field plants and cultivated plants * Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques * sample image * 1580

A collection of fruits from the West Indies, drawn and coloured from nature * Byam, Lydia * sample image * 1800

Drawings of tropical flowers and fruits, from South America * Empson, Charles * sample image * 1830

Botanical manuscript of 450 watercolors of flowers and plants * anonymous  * sample image * 1740

Collection of seventy-eight water color plates of plants * anonymous  * sample image * 1700

Tulpenboeken * Marrel, Jacob * sample image * 1670

Album of watercolors of Asian fruits and flowers * anonymous  * sample image * 1798

Plantes des environs de Paris * Turpin, Pierre Jean Francois * sample image * 1805

Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae, sive, Icones generum * Bauer, Ferdinand * sample image * 1813

Piante varie * Garzoni, Giovanna * sample image * 1650

L'art de peindre les fleurs a l'aquarelle : précédé d'un traité de botanique élémentaire, et orné d'un choix des plus belles fleurs * Dufour, Augustine * sample image * 1837

Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe V1 * Seder, Anton; Gerlach, Martin; Ilg, Albert  * sample image * 1886

Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe V2 * Seder, Anton; Gerlach, Martin; Ilg, Albert  * sample image * 1886

Conversations on the botany of the Scriptures * Coxe, Margaret * sample image * 1837

Water-color sketches of plants of North America and Europe - Volume 12 * Sharp, Helen * sample image * 1888

Album of Chinese watercolors of Asian fruits * anonymous  * sample image * 1810

Paintings of Flowers, Butterflies, and Insects * Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques * sample image * 1570

Roland Thaxter sketch book * Thaxter, Roland * sample image * 1886

British grasses * Wharton, Elizabeth and Margaret * sample image * 1802

The compleat florist * Robsinson, J. (seller) * sample image * 1747

Life Magazine in 1941

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Internet Archive has digitized versions of many Life Magazines. I have been browsing through them – slowly since there was an issue for each week. As I looked at the issues from 1941, I thought about the buildup of war activities in the US and then Pearl Harbor occurring in December. The US did not formally enter the war until December 11th but it is obvious from the pictures Life published that people were very aware of what was happening and the US involvement too. And there were still other aspects of life that continued on – iceboats, Coca-Cola, glass food packaging, the New York skyline. (Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version and the links to see the whole magazine online.)

 Life Magazine 1941-01-06 – Ernest Hemingway

Life Magazine 1941-01-13 – Hitler with big guns

Life Magazine 1941-01-20 – Florida sand and mud creating Camp Blanding for 70,000 soldiers

Life Magazine 1941-01-27 – London on fire from war

Life Magazine 1941-02-03  - Wright Field wind tunnel

Life Magazine 1941-02-10 – American bombers poised to take off from Newfoundland

Life Magazine 1941-02-17 - Iceboats

Life Magazine 1941-02-24 – Railway gun built by US Industry

Life Magazine 1941-03-03 – Greek Peasant troops into Albania in winter

Life Magazine 1941-03-10 – Mayor LaGuardia explaining the food stamp plan

Life Magazine 1941-03-17 – English children

Life Magazine 1941-03-24 – Tornado shelters

Life Magazine 1941-03-31 – Bombing rehearsal off Diamond Head, Hawaii from aircraft carrier

Life Magazine 1941-04-07 – Coca-Cola six-bottle carton (cardboard and glass)

Life Magazine 1941-04-14 – British war prisoners (sketches from a German prison camp)

Life Magazine 1941-04-21 – Damaged British battleship seeking repairs in New York’s upper bay

Life Magazine 1941-04-28 – Glass for food packaging

Life Magazine 1941-05-05 – Big classes at Harvard

Life Magazine 1941-05-12 – Gandhi is the voice of Hindu masses

Life Magazine 1941-05-19 – Nazi blitzkrieg reaches London’s oldest cardroom

Life Magazine 1941-05-26 – Balkan war

Life Magazine 1941-06-02 – Nazis wreck great monuments of English culture

Life Magazine 1941-06-09 – Crete invasion

Life Magazine 1941-06-16 – Women bringing pans to provide metals of the war

Life Magazine 1941-06-23 – Chinese children (orphans)

Life Magazine 1941-06-30 – Wrecked Axis ships

Life Magazine 1941-07-07 – The arming of America - tanks

Life Magazine 1941-07-14 – Beer and ale

Life Magazine 1941-07-21 – Tin makes Singapore rich

Life Magazine 1941-07-28 – War in Russia

Life Magazine 1941-08-04 – Germans execute Russian sniper caught in wheat field

Life Magazine 1941-08-11 – Life photographer in Moscow a week before Nazi invasion

Life Magazine 1941-08-18 – Line of tanks

Life Magazine 1941-08-25 – Naval gun construction at Bethlehem

Life Magazine 1941-09-01 – Moscow camouflages itself by day and black out by night

Life Magazine 1941-09-08 – Hard times of Alden family

Life Magazine 1941-09-15 – Battleship tests its guns at sea

Life Magazine 1941-09-22 – Roosevelt mourning his mother

Life Magazine 1941-09-29 – Spitsbergen – British blow up coal mines

Life Magazine 1941-10-06 – Rain, mud, dust….the Army goes through

Life Magazine 1941-10-13 – Appalachian trail

Life Magazine 1941-10-20 – Pan American Airways Clipper

Life Magazine 1941-10-27 – Crowd in Moscow park listening to war speakers

Life Magazine 1941-11-03 – Army builds its Iceland base

Life Magazine 1941-11-10 – New York skyline behind New Jersey suburbs

Life Magazine 1941-11-17 – Russian mud and blood stall German army

Life Magazine 1941-11-24 – B-19, world’s largest warplane (at the time)

Life Magazine 1941-12-01 – Balloon houses for defense workers under Virginia trees

Life Magazine 1941-12-08 – American flag goes down in the south Atlantic

Life Magazine 1941-12-15 – Jap bombers aim first blow at Oahu base

Life Magazine 1941-12-22 – US planes fight to command the air

Life Magazine 1941-12-29 – Knox Report – deeds of heroism at Pearl Harbor

Homeless in America (1988 eBook)

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The opening message of this book concluded by saying ‘We must not let homelessness become an American institution.’ And yet – in 2025, there are still a lot of people that are homeless and the cost of housing is rising fast enough that it is unlikely that there will ever be enough affordable housing….or effective enough attention to reduce the tragedies that unfold for people that find themselves in the situation.

The book is a pictorial work – full of photographs from cities all over America. Some of the people had died before the book was published. It is available on Internet Archive. I found myself thinking about what has changed. There are new drugs that are, at least, as addictive as the ones in 1988 and some are more likely to cause death from overdose or wounds that will never heal. The tents are similar. The cars that people try to live in are different models…probably just as uncomfortable. But in the end – the efforts that non-profits and churches and cities made really have not been very effective.

Homeless in America: a Joint Project of the National Mental Health Association and Families for the Homeless

Meadowlark – A Journal of Illinois Birds

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This week’s ‘book of the week’ is 22 issues of a journal from the Illinois Ornithological Society from 2012-2022(available on Internet Archive). I enjoyed the photography and drawings of birds that are seen in the Midwest…close enough to where I live that I see at least some of them in areas of Missouri. Click on any of the images in the mosaic to see a larger version. The links to the volumes are below the mosaic; they contain additional images and interesting articles about birds seen in the state.

As I write this post, I am planning a trip to Illinois in a week or so….hoping I will see some of these birds while I am there!