Books and Bulletins from The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities

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This week’s collection of books from Internet Archive are from The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm. The first two are books published in the 1960s. The rest are bulletins from 1929 to 2003. So many things to browse! I primarily looked at the images but some of the articles caught my attention as well. These volumes are a mix of history and art….from a part of the world I have never visited…but enjoy from afar. Enjoy the sample images from each volume!

Sung Ming: Treasures from the Holger Lauritzen Collection

Korean Ceramics

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 01

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 02

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 03

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 04

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 05

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 06

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 07

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 08

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 09

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 10

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 11

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 12

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 13

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 14

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 15

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 16

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 17

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 18

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 19

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 20

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 21

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 22

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 23

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 24

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 25

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 26

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 27

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 28

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 29

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 30

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 31

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 32

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 33

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 34

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 35

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 36

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 37

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 38

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 39

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 40

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 41

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 42

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 43

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 44

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 45

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 46

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 47

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 49

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 50

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 53

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 54

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 55

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 56

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 57

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 58

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 60

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 61

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 62

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 63

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 64

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 67

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 68

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 70

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 71

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 72

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 73

The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 75

13 'The Spell of…. ' (eBooks)

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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)

Japan’s 1891 Earthquake

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The Great Earthquake in Japan, 1891 is available on Internet Archive; it was published shortly after the event and includes photographs by K. Ogawa. I picked 6 of them for this blog post. They must have been some of the first pictures of a major earthquake and I wonder how many people saw them around the world. Photography extends the understanding of this type of disaster beyond the people experiencing the destruction more effectively to the general population than written descriptions or drawings.

The Wikipedia article for this earthquake says that this is the still the largest known inland earthquake to have occurred in the Japanese archipelago.

One of the authors of the text, John Milne, had been in Japan since 1876 and had focused on seismology in Japan following an earthquake in February 1880 and initiated what would become the earthquake reporting system of the Japan Meteorological Agency. The 1891 earthquake was well measured because of the proactive work in the decades before it occurred and added to the data in the reporting system allowing for better understanding of aftershocks.

eBotanical Prints – January 2022

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20 botanical print books browsed in January and added to the list. The month started with two flower books and one about forests in Japan. Then I found Peter Henderson’s handbook and years of catalogs from his seed business. The catalogs intrigued me. How many of the varieties of celery and melons and peppers and tomatoes…berries and flowers are still available? Some of these varieties would be considered heirloom now and prized because the seeds are suitable to save and grow in next year’s garden. I still have more of the old catalogs to browse in February; it’s a good time to be thinking about a garden.

The whole list of 2,309 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the January 2022 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 eBotanical Prints!

The Flower-Finder * Walton, George Lincoln * sample image * 1914

Flowers Shown to Children * Kelman, Janet Harvey; Smith, C.E. * sample image * 1910

Forest Flora of Japan * Sargent, Charles Sprague * sample image * 1894

Henderson's Handbook of plants and general horticulture * Henderson, Peter * sample image * 1890

Everything for the garden, 1925 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1925

Everything for the garden, 1899 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1899

Everything for the garden, 1937 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1937

Everything for the garden, 1933 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1933

Everything for the garden, 1946 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1946

Everything for the garden, 1901 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1901

Everything for the garden, 1902 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1902

Everything for the garden, 1904 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1904

Everything for the garden, 1905 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1905

Everything for the garden, 1906 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1906

Everything for the garden, 1908 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1908

Everything for the garden, 1910 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1910

Everything for the garden, 1913 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1913

Everything for the garden, 1916 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1916

Everything for the garden, 1919 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1919

Everything for the garden, 1922 * Peter Henderson & Co * sample image * 1922

Japan in old Books

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The ‘subject’ metadata in Internet Archive can be used to find clusters of books on the same topic. Earlier this year I used a simple search to look at books about Japan using the subject “Japan – Description and Travel” and then sorting by the date published since I was mostly interested in books old enough for the copyright to be expired. I browsed the search results for books that included illustrations and am featuring my favorite ‘finds’ from this search in this weeks’ book post.

Every-day Japan by Arthur Lloyd (1909)

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Since my success with books about Japan – I’ve used the same type search for China, Algeria, Peru, Sweden, and Ireland….and am now browsing books from the Greece version of the search! I enjoy exploring books in the Internet Archive using the digital equivalent of walking through the stacks of a library…selecting a book and leafing through its pages (using thumbnail views)…pausing when something looks interesting. The big difference is the huge number of books available via Internet Archive and that I can do it anywhere/anytime there is a good internet connection! What a boon it is….particularly during this pandemic year.

Japanese Art

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The 10 volumes of Japan: described and illustrated by the Japanese were published in 1897. The illustrations were colored by hand. They were published by J.B. Millet Company in Boston but advertised as “written by eminent Japanese authorities and scholars; edited by Captain F. Brinkley with an essay on Japanese art by Kakuzo Okakura.”

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I found them by following a comment about the evolution of nature photograph made in a Smithsonian blog post; the example they used for colorizing photographs of plants was made by Kazumasa Ogawa. The first photographs in each of the volumes are his.

Each volume also includes examples of silk fabrics.

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There are structures pictured too – a bridge, a gate, greenhouse.

I liked the display of shoes – for different types of people…and sometimes for specific work!

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Often the last illustrations in a volume are of historical art.

Browsing through…looking at the illustrations…a snapshot of Japan just before 1900…great activity for indoors on a cold winter day!

All 10 volumes are available from Internet Archive here. (Note: there might be 5 more volumes…but they are not available on Internet Archive.

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.

Gleanings, MAELSTROM prompt, and a Phoebe

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

Gleanings from the Past Week

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.

The world’s most nutritious foods - BBC Future – The one on the list that surprised me was ‘pork fat.’

New Thoughts on Corn Cultivation at Cahokia - Archaeology Magazine – Evidently maize arrived between AD 900 and 1000…about 1,000 years later than previously thought. I remember visiting Cahokia in 2010 about this time….a road trip from Ithaca NY to Flagstaff AZ with my daughter for her summer of undergraduate research.

Old Wisteria Tree in Japan Is the Most Beautiful in the World – I missed the wisteria blooming at Brookside Gardens this year. This 150 year old tree in this post is huge in comparison.

How the news changes the way we think and behave - BBC Future – I find that I feel better when I don’t check the news as often…once or twice a day is often enough unless there is something happening that impacts what I am doing (like very bad weather coming). I want to stay informed but don’t need stories repeated again and again…one time is generally enough and there are very few that I need to know as they are developing.

Top 25 birds of the week: #May 2020 - Wild Bird Revolution – A little feathery color….

Waves of Fluid Bathe the Sleeping Brain, Perhaps to Clear Waste | The Scientist Magazine®  - Still a lot to learn about the brain. I found myself wondering of poor sleep is the cause or effect of some disorders.

An Intimate Look at Italy’s Saffron Harvest - The New York Times – Color and flavor – and labor intensive.

Saber-tooth surprise: Fossils redraw picture of the fearsome big cat – The big cat was a forest/ambush hunter rather than one that hunted in more open environments.

Welcome Back! | The Prairie Ecologist – Noticing the firsts of spring….a bird returned…insects emerging (or sometimes returning), plants beginning to grow….lots to take in.

Medieval Arrows Inflicted Injuries That Mirror Damage Caused by Modern Bullets | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The English longbow. The best ones were made from yew and measured 6 feet long. Drawing the weapon required 150-180 pounds of force. They shot arrows to 1,000 feet. At the Battle of Crecy in 1346, historians estimate that the English archers shot as many as 35,000 arrows per minute….were victorious even though they were outnumber by 2 to 1.

A Zentangle Prompt

Experiment with the MAELSTROM pattern. This is a grid pattern and is an opportunity to play with different orientations of a simple basic design made in each small square.  I always like to reuse materials I have around the house and an old calendar is great for these patterns. My calendar has large enough blocks for each day that I divide each into 4 x 4 grids and then cover the whole page (except for the small blocks that have a number in them) – in this case with MAELSTROM variations. I’ll share the results with you tomorrow.

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Here is a tile I made yesterday based on the prompt: Make a tile with TRIPOLI as the central tangle.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Phoebe in the morning. I hear a phoebe almost every morning but usually don’t get a photograph. Yesterday I did…while it was proclaiming its name.

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Small chipping sparrow. I’ve noticed a chipping sparrow that looks smaller than the others coming to the feeder the past couple of days. I finally got a picture of it with another chipper on the other side of the feeder. Doesn’t the one on the right look smaller? Maybe it is just the way the bird is oriented/holding itself.

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.

3 Free eBooks – July 2019

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So many good books…so little time.

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International Museum of the Horse. A Gift from the Desert: The Art, History and Culture of the Arabian Horse. Lexington, Kentucky: International Museum of the Horse. 2010. Available from Internet Archive here. This is the illustrated catalog from an exhibition held in 2010; the presenting sponsor was the Saudi Arabian Equestrian Federation. The photographs of objects and locations included in the digital book tell the story more than the words.

Bing, Siegfried (editor). Le Japon artistique : documents d'art et d'industrie. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-arts. 1888. Available from Internet Archive here. The French version of a magazine that appeared simultaneously in English, French, and German. It helped introduce Japanese art and artworks to the West. I had previously looked at the English version but didn’t realize they were the same thing until I looked back at my master booklist. I still enjoyed the illustrations…again.

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Gould, John. The Birds of Australia. London: R and JE Taylor. Seven volumes originally published in the mid-1800s and available from Internet Archive here . The illustrations are probably the work of his wife – Elizabeth Gould. She died in 1841 shortly after giving birth to her 8th child. It wasn’t until 1938 that a collection of her letters from Australia were discovered and became the basis for a biography.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 9, 2018

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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.

Monument Valley: An Icon of American West : Image of the Day – It’s interesting to see a place I’ve been (on the ground) from a different perspective.

How to Be Happy: A Cheat Sheet – A summary of a course on the topic from Yale.

Biologist advocates ecological approach to improving human health -- ScienceDaily – Thinking about the body (particularly the gut) as an ecosystem in need of restoration!

Compound Interest - Why is milk white? The chemistry of milk – The white is from the clusters of proteins and calcium that make up ‘micelles’!

Top 25: Birds of America – National Geographic Blog – How many of these birds do you recognize? I recognized almost all of them…and have seen at least 20 in the wild!

Colorful Architectural Watercolors of International Cities by Maja Wroń – Some are easier to recognize that others. I liked the vivid colors too.

Supermarket Buying Guide | Berkeley Wellness – A guide from 2013…but still good overall.

Lighting intervention improves sleep and mood for Alzheimer’s patients: Daytime light exposure decreases sleep disturbances, depression and agitation -- ScienceDaily – I wonder if this is not true for almost everyone…not just Alzheimer’s patients. Artificial light (and computer/tablet/phone screens) are disruptive to our circadian rhythm.

Majority of Americans Believe Space Exploration Remains Essential | Pew Research Center – Hurray! The result that surprised me the most in this survey, was that ‘monitor key parts of the Earth’s climate system’ was the top priority!

Photographer Captures the Enchanting Beauty of Mount Fuji at Dawn – I expected more sunrise color…but enjoyed the artistry behind these images more than I initially thought I would.

3 Free eBooks – February 2018

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I’m saving the wonderful botanical print books I viewed in February for a post on botanical prints…so the three books featured today are from the rest of my online reading in February.

Mochizuki, Gyokusen. Gyokusen shūgajō. Tonaka Jihe, Kyoto-shi, Meiji 24. 1891. Available from the Smithsonian Libraries site here.  I liked the soft colors and the depictions of familiar things. The dragonfly on grassy stems was my favorite.

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Mori, Yuzan. Hamonshu. Yamada Geisodo, Kyoto-shi, Meiji 36. 1903. Three volumes are available from the Smithsonian Libraries site here. These books are all about depicting water. I got a lot of ideas for Zentangle patterns from these volumes

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.Ladies Realm – an illustrated monthly magazine. Published by Hutchinson and Co. London. The volumes from the late 1800s to 1913 are available on Hathi Trust here.  This period was one of transition. There was a lot of change in fashion and technology and what women were reading. At first there were a lot of pictures of the royal family and other aristocrats….and lots of pages devoted to fashion from Paris. As time when on, there was more fiction, more ‘how to’ articles, and by the 25th volume (1908-1909) an article showing pictures of London at night.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 6, 2018

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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.

30,000 Shards of Historic Stained Glass Found in Westminster Abbey’s Attic | Smart News | Smithsonian – Glass found in the dust and dirt that accumulated in the deep cone-shaped pits of the interior of the triforium. Evidently most of it is from the Medieval period.

Streams can be sensors -- ScienceDaily – Using streams to assess the health of a region’s landscapes my lead to more focused actions for sustainable agriculture and development. This research highlights that basic concept but also points to some way to improve the way streams are monitored.

Stunning Images of Hokkaido Covered in Snow by Photographer Ying Yin – It is very cold in Maryland while I’m creating the post…fortunately we only have a dusting of snow.

BBC - Future - The mosquitoes that are fighting dengue and Zika – Increasing mosquito born diseases….new measures.

John Wesley Powell: Soldier, Explorer, Scientist and National Geographic Founder – National Geographic  - A little history – one of the founders of the National Geographic Society.

Scientists find surprising evidence of rapid changes in the Arctic -- ScienceDaily – Chemical changes in the arctic ocean…open waters, increased wave action, stirred sediments. There is a need for international collaboration to understand what is happening.

Hawai’i Volcanos National Park – A reminder of our vacation a few years ago to the Big Island

The Race North – Cool Green Science – Some trees may not be able to move north or up fast enough as the climate changes. Will foresters for the future step in?

New desalination method offers low energy alternative to purify salty water -- ScienceDaily – In places where water shortages are happening (and projected), desalination may become a very important technology.

The Year Climate Change Began to Spin Out of Control - MIT Technology Review – An aspect of 2017 in review. When will everyone decide climate change is an existential issue rather than a political one?