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!

eBotanical Prints – August 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in August - available for browsing on Internet Archive.  The publication dates span almost 400 years! The oldest is from 1642 An album of botanical studies and represented by the sample image at row 3, column 2 in the mosaic. The most recent is from 2023 The Beauty of The Flower: The Art and Science of Botanical Illustration which Is a good reference for the history of botanical prints. The sample image is on the last row of the mosaic, column 3. My favorites this month are the 4 books by S. Fred Prince because they are about Missouri plants! The sample images are the 4th row in the sample image mosaic.

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,183 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from August’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 August 2025 eBotanical Prints!

Album of Garden Flowers * anonymous  * sample image * 1800

Drawings and proof engravings for Francoise de la Roche’s Sea-Hollies * Turpin, Pierre Jean Francois * sample image * 1808

Album of 70 Asian fruit paintings * anonymous  * sample image * 1800

Illustrations of orchidaceous plants * Moore, Thomas (editor) * sample image * 1857

Theatrum florae in quo ex toto orbe selecti mirabiles venustiores ac praecipui flores tanquam ab ipsus deae sinu proferuntur  guillelmus theodorus pinxit 1624 * Rabel, Daniel * sample image * 1624

Getekende planten van rupelmonde V1 * Toulon, Martin Adriane Marie Van * sample image * 1823

Getekende planten van rupelmonde V2 * Toulon, Martin Adriane Marie Van * sample image * 1823

Getekende planten van rupelmonde V3 * Toulon, Martin Adriane Marie Van * sample image * 1823

Curtis's Botanical Magazine - Vol 148-149 * Curtis, William * sample image * 1923

An album of botanical studies * Dutch School * sample image * 1642

Album of Fruits and Flowers * Cloquet, Lise * sample image * 1820

Blumenbuch * Funck, Magdelena Rosina * sample image * 1692

Fifty years study of some of our most common ferns in their habitats : mostly at "Camptosorus" : 1883-1903-1930 * Prince, S. Fred * sample image * 1930

The rainbow in the grass; wildflowers of the Marvel Cave Ozark * Prince, S. Fred * sample image * 1936

Watercolors * Prince, S. Fred * sample image * 1936

Violets of the Ozarks * Prince, S. Fred * sample image * 1902

Pharmaceutisch-medicinische botanik V1 * Wagner, Daniel * sample image * 1828

Pharmaceutisch-medicinische botanik V2 * Wagner, Daniel * sample image * 1828

The Beauty Of The Flower: The Art And Science Of Botanical Illustration * Harris, Stephen A. * sample image * 2023

Catalogus plantarum horti Pisani * Till, Michel Angelo * sample image * 1723

Tony Cragg Sculptures

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The ‘book of the week’ is from an early 1990s exhibition of Tony Cragg’s work. The artist has continued to work and evolve…so this the book represents his early work! The sample images below are skewed toward works from the 1970s and early 1980s. Look at the whole book by following the link to its location in Internet Archive.

Tony Cragg: Sculpture 1975-1990

Life Magazine in 1940

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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 1940, I thought about my parents in elementary school then and becoming more aware of the war as they got older. Their families were probably listening to the radio but many of the reports must have seemed very far away, and it is unlikely that saw the pictures in Life Magazine. (Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version.)

 Life Magazine 1940-01-01 – War’s impact on the London Zoo

Life Magazine 1940-01-08 – Trucks from the US going to France for troops

Life Magazine 1940-01-15 – Torpedoed British freighter goes down in the Atlantic

Life Magazine 1940-01-22 – Finnish people fleeing the war

Life Magazine 1940-01-29 – War in Turkey

Life Magazine 1940-02-05 – Swedish aviators

Life Magazine 1940-02-12 – Hardship in Spain

Life Magazine 1940-02-19 – In Russia

Life Magazine 1940-02-26 – Germans in Poland

 

Life Magazine 1940-03-04 – Life in Miami

Life Magazine 1940-03-11 – Maginot Line

Life Magazine 1940-03-18 – Coco Cola ad

Life Magazine 1940-03-35 - Plastics

Life Magazine 1940-04-01 – Niblets corn ad

Life Magazine 1940-04-08 – Stratoliner plane

Life Magazine 1940-04-15 - Fashion

Life Magazine 1940-04-15 – A German-transport armada crosses to Norway

Life Magazine 1940-04-29 – Europe’s sea power

 

Life Magazine 1940-05-06 – Shirley Temple

Life Magazine 1940-05-13  - British destroyer crew rides waves of North Sea after Germans sink ship

Life Magazine 1940-05-20 – German Blitzkrieg

Life Magazine 1940-05-27 – British in Belgium

Life Magazine 1940-06-03 – Germany’s fighting forces

Life Magazine 1940-06-10 – German private with a French flag captured in battle

Life Magazine 1940-06-17 – British wounded

Life Magazine 1940-06-24 – Mussolini struts his stuff as prelude to war

 

Life Magazine 1940-07-01 – Britons aim at the sky, send children to the US

Life Magazine 1940-07-08 – Admiral Byrd’s expedition to the Arctic

Life Magazine 1940-07-15 – Imaginary invasion of Britain

Life Magazine 1940-07-22 – British children housed in an American Castle by the Sea

Life Magazine 1940-07-29 – Easter in Paris

Life Magazine 1940-08-05 – Vacation at the Grand Canyon

Life Magazine 1940-08-12 – Japanese bomb Chungking

Life Magazine 1940-08-19 – Parachute practice

Life Magazine 1940-08-26 – War in English Channel and over London

 

Life Magazine 1940-09-02 – The Oval Office

Life Magazine 1940-09-09 – German bombers try to break civilian morale

Life Magazine 1940-09-16 – Heart diseases a major factor in US death rate

Life Magazine 1940-09-23 – Hitler tries to destroy London

Life Magazine 1940-09-30 – The bombing of London

Life Magazine 1940-10-07 – Bombing of London (damage)

Life Magazine 1940-10-14 – Praying for Great Britain in Washington’s National Cathedral

Life Magazine 1940-10-21 – US Industry

Life Magazine 1940-10-28 – The US Navy

 

Life Magazine 1940-11-04 – International Trucks

Life Magazine 1940-11-11 – Hitler’s Reich Chancellery

Life Magazine 1940-11-18 – Times Square on Election Night

Life Magazine 1940-11-25 – The world’s biggest ship leaves New York to join the war at sea

Life Magazine 1940-12-02 – Mussolini tries to break Greece

Life Magazine 1940-12-09 - Gibraltar

Life Magazine 1940-12-16 – German plane crash

Life Magazine 1940-12-23 – Ruins of Coventry

Life Magazine 1940-12-30 – Germans in Paris

Chihuly Seaforms in 1995

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I always enjoy seeing Chihuly glass in museums and gardens…and enjoyed browsing this book available from Internet Archive with wonderful pictures of some of his work. It is my book of the week.

Glass is a material that is strong yet fragile, shaped when molten then rigid. It’s my favorite kind of 3-D art. The graceful curves and vibrant colors seen in this book are like a meditation prompt for me!

Chihuly Seaforms

Pearson’s Birds of America

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This week’s book is the Birds of America edited by Thomas Gilbert Pearson and published in 1917. Pearson was one of the co-founders of what became the National Audubon Society and was an American conservationist in the early decades of the 1900s…a time when egrets were killed for their plumes to be used in lady’s hats. The book includes 106 plates by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. It is available for browsing on Internet Archive.

Birds of America

eBotanical Prints – July 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in July - available for browsing on Internet Archive. Nine of the books were published in the 1800s, 4 in the 1700s, and 5 in the 1600s. All had colorful illustrations of plants.

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,163 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from July’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 July 2025 eBotanical Prints!

162 Drawings of Plants * Hamilton, Dame Ann * sample image * 1752

Collection of botanical studies * French School * sample image * 1820

Classe onzieme suite des plantes a fleur irreguliere composee de plusieurs feuilles ou nomme fleurs irregulieres polipetales * French School * sample image * 1700

An Album of Flowers * French School * sample image * 1790

Mongewell Flora * Bishop of Durham * sample image * 1807

Album de botanique V1 * Prevost-Hersant, Constant Amable * sample image * 1856

Album de botanique V2 * Prevost-Hersant, Constant Amable * sample image * 1856

Album of English plants * Pettman, M.  * sample image * 1841

Drawings for Mordant de Launay's Herbier général de l'amateur * Bessa, Pancrace * sample image * 1827

Delectus florae et faunae Brasiliensis jussu et auspiciis francisci i. austriae imperatoris investigatae * Mikan, Johann Christian * sample image * 1825

Getekende planten van rupelmonde V1 * Toulon, Martine Adriane Marie Van * sample image * 1823

Getekende planten van rupelmonde V2 * Toulon, Martine Adriane Marie Van * sample image * 1823

Getekende planten van rupelmonde V3 * Toulon, Martine Adriane Marie Van * sample image * 1823

An album of garden flowers and manuscript record book detailing plant purchases * Dutch school * sample image * 1680

Wild flowers of America * M, A.C. * sample image * 1879

Pharmacopoeus Insuleinsis 1789 * Decroix, Stanislaus * sample image * 1789

Botanical manuscript with 265 drawings of plants * Schmitz, Elizabeth Pieth * sample image * 1678

Dutch florilegium V1 * Withoos, Jan * sample image * 1670

Dutch florilegium V2 * Withoos, Jan * sample image * 1670

Dutch florilegium V3 * Withoos, Jan * sample image * 1670

eBotanical Prints – June 2025 - updated

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in June - available for browsing on Internet Archive. Most books were published in the 1800s (14 of the 20) although there were 5 from the 1700s. The first book on the list - The Illustrated Garden: Books from the Missouri Botanical Garden, 1485–1855: An Exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum – was published in 2004 and is going to be a great reference and I continue to explore eBotantical Prints!

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,143 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from June’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 June 2025 eBotanical Prints!

The Illustrated Garden: Books from the Missouri Botanical Garden, 1485–1855: An Exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum * Herndon-sonsagra, Francesca * sample image * 2004

Album containing watercolors of plants * American School * sample image * 1881

Curiosites de la nature. des fleurs * French School * sample image * 1756

Four albums of flowers by an amateur artist and botanist V1 * English School * sample image * 1828

Four albums of flowers by an amateur artist and botanist V2 * English School * sample image * 1828

Four albums of flowers by an amateur artist and botanist V3 * English School * sample image * 1828

Four albums of flowers by an amateur artist and botanist V5 * English School * sample image * 1828

La natura, e coltura de' fiori fisicamente esposta in due trattati con nuove ragioni, osservazioni, e sperienze * Arena, Filippo * sample image * 1768

Roberti Icones Platarum V1 * Robert, Nicolas; Bosse, Abraham; Chastillon, Louis de * sample image * 1701

Roberti Icones Platarum V2 * Robert, Nicolas; Bosse, Abraham; Chastillon, Louis de * sample image * 1701

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V1 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V2 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V3 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V4 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V5 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V6 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V7 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V8 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Collection du regne vegetal, arbres, forestiers et fruitiers, leurs fruits * Ledoulx, Pierre Francois; Verbrugge, Jean Charles; Ducq, Joseph Francois * sample image * 1831

A catalogue of English plants drawn after nature by Lady Frances Howard  * Howard, Lady Frances * sample image * 1766






Life Magazine in 1939

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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 1939, I thought about my parents in elementary school then. War was becoming more serious over the course of the year but Pearl Harbor was not until December 1941; the US was providing supplies but was not actually engaged in the war effort.

Life Magazine 1939-01-02 – Japanese Navy holds the Yangtze

Life Magazine 1939-01-09 – Very cold in Europe

Life Magazine 1939-01-16 – US Capitol building

Life Magazine 1939-01-23 – Scenes from Mexico

Life Magazine 1939-01-30 – Tourist trailers in Tampa municipal park

Life Magazine 1939-02-06 – American plane breaks speed records

Life Magazine 1939-02-13 – Fort Wayne house goes up in 1 hour 4 minutes

Life Magazine 1939-02-20 – Birthplaces of presidents

Life Magazine 1939-02-27 – This is the way the fleet goes to battle

Life Magazine 1939-03-06 – German battleship launched

Life Magazine 1939-03-13 – World’s Fair

Life Magazine 1939-03-20 - Goebbels

Life Magazine 1939-03-27 – Construction of “America” at Newport News shipyard

Life Magazine 1939-04-03 - Coelacanth

Life Magazine 1939-04-10 – Madrid falls and General Franco’s Spain joins the European dictatorships

Life Magazine 1939-04-17 – Britain’s defense against planes from continent

Life Magazine 1939-04-24 – Marian Anderson

Life Magazine 1939-05-01 – Louis Raemaekers drawings from WWI

Life Magazine 1939-05-08 – Burning ship in Le Havre

Life Magazine 1939-05-15 – British royal women

Life Magazine 1939-05-22 – Chicago fire affects the price of wheat

Life Magazine 1939-05-29 – Hyde Park and the Roosevelts

Life Magazine 1939-06-05 – Grand Coulee Dam

Life Magazine 1939-06-12 – Albert Switzer

Life Magazine 1939-06-19 – British royalty in Washington

Life Magazine 1939-06-26 – WWI trenches

Life Magazine 1939-07-03 - Antarctica

Life Magazine 1939-07-10 – Emperor Hirohito

Life Magazine 1939-07-17 – Mount Rushmore and fireworks

Life Magazine 1939-07-24 – Coca-Cola ad

Life Magazine 1939-07-31 – Texaco Dealers (rest rooms registered)

Life Magazine 1939-08-07 – Japanese showing captured Russian tank and plane wreckage

Life Magazine 1939-08-14 – Bloody climax of U.A.W. Strike

Life Magazine 1939-08-21 – Concentration camps

Life Magazine 1939-08-28 – Wizard of Oz (technicolor)

Life Magazine 1939-09-04 – Madeline (children’s book)

Life Magazine 1939-09-11 – Salvaging the relics of WWI I France

Life Magazine 1939-09-18 – Liner “Athenia” is sunk

Life Magazine 1939-09-25 – German leaves its mark

Life Magazine 1939-10-02 – The English take the war in their stride

Life Magazine 1939-10-09 – Queen Elizabeth looks over London’s air-raid precautions

Life Magazine 1939-10-16 – Hitler reviews German Army from plane

Life Magazine 1939-10-23 – Hitler and von Ribbentrop walking

Life Magazine 1939-10-30 – German submarines in the North Sea

Life Magazine 1939-11-06 – 3 Ocean liners in New York

Life Magazine 1939-11-13 – Helen Hayes and family

Life Magazine 1939-11-20 – Nazi Bombers reach Scottish coast

Life Magazine 1939-11-27 - Lockheed

Life Magazine 1939-12-04 – 6  of 140 Allied and neutral ships sunk in the war

Life Magazine 1939-12-11 – French guard on German border

Life Magazine 1939-12-18 – Military inspired toys for Christmas

Life Magazine 1939-12-25 - High spots of “Gone with the Wind”

Silver and Gold of the Viking Age

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My pick for the week’s eBook is from the British Museum and was published in 2011. It is available on Internet Archive. Many of the artifacts are jewelry. They showcase the design and metallurgy skills of the period. Many times we focus on the violence of the Viking Age…their ships and weapons and raiding of coastal settlements. Looking at jewelry provides a different perspective. I wondered how many of the designs were from the Vikings themselves or were looted (or copied) from the peoples they encountered.

The Cuerdale Hoard and Related Viking Age Silver and Gold from Britain and Ireland in the British Museum

eBotanical Prints – June 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in June - available for browsing on Internet Archive. Most books were published in the 1800s (14 of the 20) although there were 5 from the 1700s. The first book on the list - The Illustrated Garden: Books from the Missouri Botanical Garden, 1485–1855: An Exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum – was published in 2004 and is going to be a great reference and I continue to explore eBotantical Prints!

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,143 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from June’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 June 2025 eBotanical Prints!

The Illustrated Garden: Books from the Missouri Botanical Garden, 1485–1855: An Exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum * Herndon-sonsagra, Francesca * sample image * 2004

Album containing watercolors of plants * American School * sample image * 1881

Curiosites de la nature. des fleurs * French School * sample image * 1756

Four albums of flowers by an amateur artist and botanist V1 * English School * sample image * 1828

Four albums of flowers by an amateur artist and botanist V2 * English School * sample image * 1828

Four albums of flowers by an amateur artist and botanist V3 * English School * sample image * 1828

Four albums of flowers by an amateur artist and botanist V5 * English School * sample image * 1828

La natura, e coltura de' fiori fisicamente esposta in due trattati con nuove ragioni, osservazioni, e sperienze * Arena, Filippo * sample image * 1768

Roberti Icones Platarum V1 * Robert, Nicolas; Bosse, Abraham; Chastillon, Louis de * sample image * 1701

Roberti Icones Platarum V2 * Robert, Nicolas; Bosse, Abraham; Chastillon, Louis de * sample image * 1701

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V1 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V2 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V3 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V4 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V5 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V6 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V7 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel, ou, Traite des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France V8 * Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, M. * sample image * 1812

Collection du regne vegetal, arbres, forestiers et fruitiers, leurs fruits * Ledoulx, Pierre Francois; Verbrugge, Jean Charles; Ducq, Joseph Francois * sample image * 1831

A catalogue of English plants drawn after nature by Lady Frances Howard  * Howard, Lady Frances * sample image * 1766

The Green Island

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The book-of-the-week is a children’s book about the Botanical Garden in the middle of Moscow published in 1983. The story is about a visit to the garden by a six year old boy and his father. It is illustrated with colorful art and photographs. I’ve picked 4 sample images but there are many others to browse via Internet Archive. The author (and photographer) is Victor Datskevich and translated from Russian by Jan Butler.

The Green Island

This is one of the many books published in the waning days of the Soviet Union and part of the MIR-titles collection in Internet Archive.

Zoologia typica

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Louis Fraser was a British zoologist and collector active in the mid-1800s. He travel widely and spent his last years in America. His Zoologica Typica, or figures of the new and rare animals and birds in the collection of the Zoological Society of London, this week’s book of the week, was published in 1849. It is lavishly illustrated and now easily browsed on Internet Archive.

Zoologia typica

eBotanical Prints – May 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in May - available for browsing on Internet Archive. The Descriptions of orchid genera by Fritz Kraenzlin series that I started back in May was completed with another 6 volumes in this month’s eBotanical Prints list. There are volumes 1 and 3 of Rudolf Koch’s Das Blumenbuch; I discovered had browsed the second volume back in 2018 and it was already on the list! The oldest volume on the list is Florilegium novum hoc est by Johann Theodor Bry published in 1611; its sample image is the only one that is not in color!

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,123 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from May’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 May 2025 eBotanical Prints!

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V6 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V7 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V8 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V9 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V10 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V11 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Das Blumenbuch V1 * Koch, Rudolf; Kredel, Fritz * sample image * 1929

Das Blumenbuch V3 * Koch, Rudolf; Kredel, Fritz * sample image * 1929

Florilegium novum hoc est * Bry, Johann Theodor * sample image * 1611

The spirit of the woods : illustrated by coloured engravings * Hey, Rebecca * sample image * 1837

Planches de physiologie végétale * Errera, Leo Abram; Laurent, E.  * sample image * 1897

Autumnal Leaves * Robins, Ellen; Graves, Gertrude M. * sample image * 1868

Garden Album and Review : an illustrated monthly magazine of Horticulture. Vol. 1, Nos. 1-5 * Weathers, John (editor) * sample image * 1906

Beautiful garden flowers for town and country * Weathers, John  * sample image * 1904

Beautiful flowering trees and shrubs for British and Irish Gardens * Weathers, John  * sample image * 1904

Nouveau Duhamel V1 * Loiseleur-Deslongchanps, L.A. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel V2 * Loiseleur-Deslongchanps, L.A. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel V3 * Loiseleur-Deslongchanps, L.A. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel V4 * Loiseleur-Deslongchanps, L.A. * sample image * 1812

Nouveau Duhamel V5 * Loiseleur-Deslongchanps, L.A. * sample image * 1812

Life Magazine in 1938

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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 1938, I thought about my parents in elementary school then. They were probably still mostly oblivious to the events in the broader world – secure with their families in rural/small town Oklahoma. The sample images (one from each weekly magazine) show a variety of topics the Life editors chose to cover over the course of the year. The growing news of war in Europe was in the news but life in America was not impacted very much.

Life Magazine 1938-01-03 – the Mormon Temple (Salt Lake City)

Life Magazine 1938-01-10 – Florida

Life Magazine 1938-01-17 – Texas oil

Life Magazine 1938-01-24 – Chinese fighting against the Japanese invasion

Life Magazine 1938-01-31 – Helium from plant in Amarillo TX exported to Germany for Zeppelin

Life Magazine 1938-02-07 – Women’s shoes

Life Magazine 1938-02-14 – Georgia O’Keeffe

Life Magazine 1938-02-21 – Carl Sandburg

Life Magazine 1938-02-28 – Helen Keller

Life Magazine 1938-03-07 – Hitler at Berlin Philharmonic

Life Magazine 1938-03-14 – Products from Mexico

Life Magazine 1938-03-21 – Old music in new ways (radio and records too)

Life Magazine 1938-03-28 – Lives broken in Austria by Nazi conquest

Life Magazine 1938-04-04 – Junked cars

Life Magazine 1938-04-11 – Tornado in Kansas

Life Magazine 1938-04-18 – Lipton tea

Life Magazine 1938-04-25 – Bridge to Key West finished

Life Magazine 1938-05-02 – Three Musicians by Picasso

Life Magazine 1938-05-09 - Mussolini

Life Magazine 1938-05-16 – Solar flare

Life Magazine 1938-05-16 – Hitler and Mussolini

Life Magazine 1938-05-30 – Ford tires

Life Magazine 1938-06-06 – Princeton boys

Life Magazine 1938-06-13 – Pattern of War

Life Magazine 1938-06-20 – War in China

Life Magazine 1938-06-27 – New plane and train

Life Magazine 1938-07-04 – Copper Mine

Life Magazine 1938-07-11 – Coca Cola

Life Magazine 1938-07-18 – Hopi impact on modern home design

Life Magazine 1938-07-25 – Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret with their mother

Life Magazine 1938-08-01 – Refinery fire

Life Magazine 1938-08-07 – Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese communists

Life Magazine 1938-08-15 – Sears, Rowbuck and Co. catalog covers

Life Magazine 1938-08-22 – Air transport maintenance

Life Magazine 1938-08-29 – Beach clubs

Life Magazine 1938-09-05 – College clothes

Life Magazine 1938-09-05 – Nazi war preparedness

Life Magazine 1938-09-19 – Czechoslovakia

Life Magazine 1938-09-26 – Hitler facial expressions

Life Magazine 1938-10-03 – France’s Maginot Line

Life Magazine 1938-10-10 – Nigel Chamberlain

Life Magazine 1938-10-17 – Gas mask queue

Life Magazine 1938-10-24 – “America in 1938 needs fewer men with guns and more men of good will”

Life Magazine 1938-10-31 – US Navy

Life Magazine 1938-11-07 – Gorges of the Yangtse

Life Magazine 1938-11-14 – Halloween in Kansas City

Life Magazine 1938-11-21 – Coca Cola

Life Magazine 1938-11-28 – Rice Krispies

Life Magazine 1938-12-05 – Christmas toys

Life Magazine 1938-12-12 – Spanish War

Life Magazine 1938-12-19 – Mary Martin

Life Magazine 1938-12-26 – The Vatican

A Picture Book of Insects

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My ‘book of the week’ is one published in the waning days of the Soviet Union in 1989: A Picture Book of Insects by Vitaly Tanasyichuk with drawings by Ruben Varshamov. Like many Raduga Publishers books that came out in the 1980s, it is not now available on Internet Archive.

The illustrations (4 samples below) are the motivation to browse the book!

A Picture Book of Insects

eBotanical Prints – April 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in April - available for browsing on Internet Archive. The series of Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature by Pierre de Savary that I started browsing back in March was completed in April. Another series, Getreue Darstellung und Beschreibung der in der Arzneykunde gebräuchlichen Gewächse, included 5 volumes (medicinal plants). A third series was started at the end of the month Descriptions of orchid genera by Fritz Kraenzlin; there are another 6 volumes that will be in the May eBotanical Prints list. There were only 3 books that were not in a series!

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,103 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from April’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 April 2025 eBotanical Prints!

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V6 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1769

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V7 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1769

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V8 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1769

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V9 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1771

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V10 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1772

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V11 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1773

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V12 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1773

Illustrations of the Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China, Vol. 39. * Chen Menglei, Jiang Tingxi * sample image * 1725

Collection de curiosites du Royaume des plantes * Gofman, Petr Marynovich * sample image * 1797

Getreue Darstellung und Beschreibung der in der Arzneykunde gebräuchlichen Gewächse (1805-1809) * Hayne, Friedrich Gottlob * sample image * 1809

Getreue Darstellung und Beschreibung der in der Arzneykunde gebräuchlichen Gewächse (1825 - 1827) * Hayne, Friedrich Gottlob * sample image * 1827

Getreue Darstellung und Beschreibung der in der Arzneykunde gebräuchlichen Gewächse (1817 - 1819) * Hayne, Friedrich Gottlob * sample image * 1819

Getreue Darstellung und Beschreibung der in der Arzneykunde gebräuchlichen Gewächse (1821- 1822) * Hayne, Friedrich Gottlob * sample image * 1822

Getreue Darstellung und Beschreibung der in der Arzneykunde gebräuchlichen Gewächse (1830-1833) * Hayne, Friedrich Gottlob * sample image * 1833

Enumeratio plantarum anno 1890 in Caucaso lectarum * Sommier, Stefano, Levier, Emile * sample image * 1900

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V1 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V2 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V3 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V4 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Descriptions of orchid genera 1880-1908 V5 * Kraenzlin, Fritz * sample image * 1908

Illustrations in Children’s Books – Soviet Union 1980s

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I browsed 36 children’s books in February – published in the Soviet Union during the 1980s. Some were clearly for export – in Hindi or English or Tamil or Bengali or Kannada. The text was not the draw for me; I was browsing for the illustrations. I’ve always enjoyed the artwork in books intended for children. It entices young readers…often colorful, sometimes whimsical. The books are freely available on Internet Archive. Enjoy a sample image from each below(click on the image to see a larger version)….then follow the link see more of the book!

The Guttapercha Boy In Hindi

Grishka And The Astronaut In Hindi

Stories for Children

The Little Hen or The Underground People - A fairy Story for Children

Yellow Beak

Bumpy

Life Magazine from 1937

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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 1937, I thought about my parents; they started school that year. They were probably still very focused on things going on within their family and small community rather than the broader world…but the world was heading into a time of turmoil. Looking at the way Life was covering those events seems relatively naïve now! The sample images (one from each weekly magazine) show a variety of topics the Life editors chose to cover over the course of the year. Most of the ‘color’ pages of the magazine were advertisements.

Life Magazine 1937-01-04 – a lot of public works projects in the past 4 years

Life Magazine 1937-01-11  - Margaret Sanger and birth control

Life Magazine 1937-01-18 – Chinese farmer in California

Life Magazine 1937-01-25 – US Army planes

Life Magazine 1937-02-01 – Roosevelt’s second inauguration  - a rainy day

Life Magazine 1937-02-08 – Mississippi flooding; levee dynamited at Cairo, Illinois

Life Magazine 1937-02-15 – US Supreme Court’s new building

Life Magazine 1937-02-22 – Marian Anderson

Life Magazine 1937-03-1 – Building the Golden Gate Bridge (accident)

Life Magazine 1937-03-8 – Sun Valley sky lifts

Life Magazine 1937-03-15 – British crown

Life Magazine 1937-03-22 – Irving parachute

Life Magazine 1937-03-29 – Palm Springs

Life Magazine 1937-04-05 – HMS Glorius in winter maneuvers

Life Magazine 1937-04-12 – Mussolini in North Africa…a Roman city in the sand

Life Magazine 1937-04-19 – Queen Mary with 3 grandchildren…Elizabeth II as a young girl

Life Magazine 1937-04-26 – Neville Chamberlain as Chancellor of the Exchequer

Life Magazine 1937-05-03 – British rearmament

Life Magazine 1937-05-10 – Germans celebrate Hitler’s birthday

Life Magazine 1937-05-17 – Dionne quintuplets at 3

Life Magazine 1937-05-24 – Coronation Day at Buckingham Palace

Life Magazine 1937-05-31 – Golden Gate Bridge from one of the piers

Life Magazine 1937-06-07 – University of Virginia

Life Magazine 1937-06-14 – Washington DC from the air

Life Magazine 1937-06-21 – Dust Bowl

Life Magazine 1937-06-28 - Telephone

Life Magazine 1937-07-05 – River Jordan and Jewish farms

Life Magazine 1937-07-12 – Audubon Association protects birds

Life Magazine 1937-07-19 - British air fleet after rearmament

Life Magazine 1937-07-26 – Typical day for a 12-week-old baby

Life Magazine 1937-07-26 – US wheat belts

Life Magazine 1937-08-09 – Mapping the battle at dawn

Life Magazine 1937-08-16 – Wall Streeters commute by plane

Life Magazine 1937-08-23 – Niagara Falls

Life Magazine 1937-08-30 – Maine trotters

Life Magazine 1937-09-06 – Texaco advertisement

Life Magazine 1937-09-13 – Nephew of Geronimo

Life Magazine 1937-09-20 – Prime Minister’s Kitchen

Life Magazine 1937-09-27 – Nazi parades

Life Magazine 1937-10-04 – American Legion parade

Life Magazine 1937-10-11 – Joe Kennedy and merchant marine stagnation

Life Magazine 1937-10-18 – Armstrong Linoleum advertisement

Life Magazine 1937-10-25 – Natives of Northwest Canada

Life Magazine 1937-11-01 – Man O’ War…256 ‘children’

Life Magazine 1937-11-08 – 100-inch telescope for Mt. Wilson

Life Magazine 1937-11-15 – Flying Dreadnought

Life Magazine 1937-11-21 – America as an exporting nations: raw cotton, automobiles, fruits

Life Magazine 1937-11-29 – Nursery furniture

Life Magazine 1937-12-06 – Japanese depiction of dying afternoon of Manchu China and garish dawn of Westernized Japan

Life Magazine 1937-12-13 – Train engines (billions of dollars and millions of men)

Life Magazine 1937-12-20 – Christmas is in the air

Life Magazine 1937-12-27 - $300/minute to operate the set for MGM’s musical Rosalie

eBotantical Prints – March 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in March - available for browsing on Internet Archive. This month includes 4 volumes of Dissertatio Botanica by Carl Peter Thunburg from the late 1700s and the first volumes of Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature by Pierre de Savary (the second series will be continued in the April eBotanical Prints). My favorite image of the month is from the Album of Chinese flora executed by one or more Chinese artists for John Reeves (1774-1856).

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,083 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 2025 eBotanical Prints!

Nova genera Plantarum  * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1781

Dissertatio Botanica V1 * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1781

Dissertatio Botanica V2 * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1782

Dissertatio Botanica V3 * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1782

Dissertatio Botanica V4 * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1782

Flora Japonica * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1784

Flora Japonica sive Plantae * Siebold, Philipp Franz von * sample image * 1835

Album of Chinese flora executed by one or more Chinese artists for John Reeves (1774-1856) * Chinese School  * sample image * 1820

Icones selectae plantarum * Kaemper, Engelbert * sample image * 1791

Medical botany; or, history of plants in the materia medica of the London, Edinburgh and Dublin pharmacopoeias. Arranged according to the Linnaean system V1 * E. Cox and Son (publisher) * sample image * 1821

Medical botany; or, history of plants in the materia medica of the London, Edinburgh and Dublin pharmacopoeias. Arranged according to the Linnaean system V2 * E. Cox and Son (publisher) * sample image * 1822

Standardized products - a descriptive list of drug extracts standardized by chemical or physiological means * Parke, Davis & Company * sample image * 1911


A brief treatise on various ailments and their treatment by nature's remedies * Medical Institute (Bradford, West Yorkshire, England) * sample image * 1895

The new British domestic herbal * Waller, John Augustine * sample image * 1822

Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des plantes * Dodart, Denis * sample image * 1676

Handbuch der pharmaceutischen Botanik. : Mit illuminirten Kupfern * Juch, Karl Wilhelp; Volckart, Johann Friedrich * sample image * 1804

The reformed practice of medicine * Rosen, Samuel * sample image * 1895

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V3 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1764

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V4 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1764

Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V5 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1765