Coles Phillips eBooks

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Coles Phillips was an illustrator known for his stylish images of women for books, advertisements, and the covers of popular magazines. I browsed two of his books on Internet Archive recently:

A Gallery of Girls (1911)

A Young Man's Fancy (1912)

More of his magazine covers can also be found on Internet Archive (list here).

He died relatively young in June 1927; Life magazine featured one of his creations on the cover in July 1927 (and a 2-page illustrated obituary). His last Life magazine cover was in September 1927. The illustrations are available from Internet Archive via the link above.

He was one of the artists that depicted the greater freedoms of women in the 1920s. I wondered, as I realized how young he had been when he died, how his art would have evolved had he lived through the great depression and World War II.

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/22/2020 – First Birds

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

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Looking at our birdfeeder camera videos and clipping a picture of the first bird recorded at the birdfeeder for each day of the month (so far). Can you identify each one? The clips from the video are not always clear. It’s easier to make IDs from watching the video – seeing how the bird moves. I put the list underneath the gallery.

  1. Carolina Wren

  2. Chipping sparrow

  3. Dark-eyed junco

  4. Tufted Titmouse (with a chipping sparrow flying in)

  5. Red-bellied woodpecker (male)

  6. Chipping sparrow with mourning doves below

  7. House finch (male and female)

  8. Northern Cardinal (female) and house finch (male)

  9. Carolina wren

  10. Northern Cardinal (female)

  11. Carolina Wren

  12. Brown-headed Cowbird (female)

  13. In the rain – Brown headed Cowbird (female) with Northern Cardinal pair below

  14. Red-bellied Woodpecker (male)

  15. Red-bellied Woodpecker (male) and Brown-headed Cowbird (female) with Northern Cardinal (male) below. The cowbird left first leaving the woodpecker to enjoy breakfast.

  16. Brown-headed Cowbirds (male and female)

  17. Brown-headed Cowbird (female)

  18. House finch (male) and Brown-headed Cowbird (female)

  19. Carolina Wren

  20. Carolina Wren

  21. House Finch (male)

  22. Carolina Wren with peanut

I noticed when I was listening to the first videos for each morning that there is often a phoebe in our yard greeting the day (they are insect eaters so don’t come to our deck).

The cowbirds are around a lot more this year, but they don’t seem to be deterring the other birds at the feeder. The woodpeckers and finches are aggressive enough to drive them away and the cardinals wait until they leave.

Refilling the birdfeeder and bath. I let the feeder be emptied by the birds. The little ones like the chickadees do a thorough job. The bigger birds like the woodpeckers are more interested in peanuts and sunflower seeds…very frustrated when the supply is low. The morning was so cold (in the low 40s) that I put my coat on for the chore.

Perfecting the grocery list. I have settled into a grocery delivery pattern: selecting a morning delivery time slot 3-4 days in advance then building up the list in the interim, marking my calendar for the 2-hour interaction with the shopper/delivery person. Thursday is the big day this week – and I got a morning time slot! There are 36 items on the list.

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Browsing Life Magazine from 1946. The March 25th edition included an article about Bikini Atoll… a topical paradise before the atomic bomb testing started just a short time after the pictures for the article were taken.

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

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/21/2020 - Macro Fabrics

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

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Looking at Life Magazine for May 1944 – I found some early work of Chesley Bonestell that launched his space art career…mixed in with the coverage of World War II.

Finished reading Bruntsfield Brook by Charles Cockell. I bought the Kindle version after hearing about it in one of the Life in the Universe Pandemic Series videos. It was a fun way to learn about microbial mats…wound into a story with lots of drama impacting the different kinds of microbes: phages, ice, pollution, and drought.

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

And now for a little project prompted by learning (from Charles Cockell in his Life in the Universe Pandemic Series) that Antonie van Leeuvenhoek first used macro lenses to assess the quality of fabric…then turned the lenses onto other things and became known as ‘the father of microbiology.’ For some reason I had never thought about what prompted him to be using glass lenses originally. So – I did a little project to look at different fabrics with the jeweler’s loupe…taking pictures with my phone through the loupe.

I started with the upholstery fabric on a couch. The colors are more vivid when they are magnified! I don’t know what the fiber content is…but it’s shiny…. that probably means it’s synthetic.

Clothes that I had that were labelled 100% cotton were all tops. 2 t-shirts (normal weight and thin) and a waffle shirt

I also had an older 100% cotton denim shirt. It is old enough to have some worn areas.

Then there were the cotton and polyester blends. The bandana didn’t have a label, but I lumped it with the blends because it was shiny. A pair of jeans and a t-shirt looked like cotton so I assume that the polyester part might be wrapped in cotton.

A quilted jacked had a looser weave and was shiny. A man’s shirt and my photovest were both a tight weave cotton/polyester.

I have a linen-look button front tunic that I have enjoyed wearing for years. I didn’t realize it was 100% polyester until I looked at the label. And it looks very much like plastic when magnified! I’d never thought of it as ‘shiny’ before.

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I had two silk scarves which I included in my pile to photograph.

And then there was acrylic blended with polyester (for a cardigan), with cotton (for a ribbed turtleneck) and nylon for a lightweight unlined sweater jacket. The last one looks like the 100% polyester tunic – although the fiber in the tunic is woven and the sweater jacket is a knit.

Overall – it was an interesting project. I am always keen to apply what I am learning, and this project blended the astrobiology lectures and the Fashion as Design class!