February 21, 2025

Images of the Middle East in the 1830s

February 21, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

The New York Public Library Digital Collections has the lithographs from Léon de Laborde’s Journey through Arabia Petraea, to Mount Sinai, and the excavated city of Petra available online. There are 60+ plates to browse! I liked that almost all of them include people…providing scale to the monuments and landscapes depicted. How many of those places still exist…how many are rubble now because of the many wars that have happened in the years since 1830?

I’ve selected 4 sample images…click on the small image to see a larger version….then click on the link below to go the whole collection and view them as a book online.

Voyage de l'Arabie Pétrée par Léon de Laborde et Linant

February 14, 2025

Ippolito Rosellini’s Ancient Egypt

February 14, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

The New York Public Library Digital Collections includes the illustrations of Ippolito Rossillini’s I Monumenti dell'Egitto e della Nubia. It was published between 1832 and 1844 documenting the Franco-Tuscan expedition to Egypt (1828-1829) and after the death of Jean-Francois Champollion (leader of the expedition) in 1832.

There are over 400 plates to enjoy – some simple drawings and some with color. I picked 6 of the color images as samples.

I monumenti dell'Egitto e della Nubia disegnati dalla spedizione scientifico-letteraria toscana in Egitto

The images are best enjoyed using the ‘view as a book’ option for the document.

January 31, 2025

Bird Images from Ancient Egypt

January 31, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

Jean-François Champollion is best known as a founding figure of Egyptology – primarily known as the primary decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphics. He died in 1831 (at 41 years old) and the book I am featuring as the ‘book of the week’ was published posthumously by his brother. There are many illustrations in the book and the version available from the New York Public Library Digital Collections includes many illustrations in color. It is well worth browsing.

Monuments de l'Égypte et de la Nubie

My favorite images in the book are of birds from the tomb of Khnumhotep II at Beni Hasan. The notation in the book is: Béni-Hassan el-Qadim [Beni Hasan]. Peintures copiées dans les tombes de Névôthph et de Ménothph. Beni Hasan is famous for tombs with high quality paintings although many are in poor condition today; fortunately, several of them were well documented in the 1800s…as the bird images shown in this book.

January 24, 2025

David Roberts’ Lithograph Prints from Egypt and Nubia

January 24, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

The New York Public Library Digital Collections has a book of prints created between 1846 and 1849 by Scottish artist David Roberts. The were evidently based on his sketches made during his travels to Egypt and Nubia between 1838-1840. The images were a success in Britain – predating the earliest photographs of the sites. This collection is well work a look! I’ve picked 4 samples…but there are many more online and easy to browse.

Egypt and Nubia

January 10, 2025

La vie et les paysages en Egypte

January 10, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

My choice for ‘book of the week’ is La vie et les paysages en Egypte – a group of 60 heliotype prints of Egypt published in the 1870s by Photoglob Co. in Zurich. The prints are from The New York Public Library Digital Collections and can be browsed in a thumbnail view or book view. I picked 4 images of structures from Ancient Egypt to share in the post – but recommend browsing the whole collection.

Photography was relatively new and labor intensive when these images were created…and yet we already see elements of excellent composition. They show what Egypt was like at the time in a way that drawings and paintings could not

December 06, 2024

eBotanical Prints – November 2024

December 06, 2024/ Gwen Morrison

Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in November - available for browsing on Internet Archive, New York Public Library Digital Collections, or Botanicus. They cover a range of botanical topics: medicinal plants, botanical link in literature (Milton), particular taxonomic groups, and fruit as well as plants of places (Italy, Russia, and Korea (7 volumes!)). Three volumes (1 by Cornut and 2 by Presl) were about North American plants from preserved plants collected by others – the authors never visit the New World. Overall - the 20 books were published over almost 300 years (1635-1933).

My list of eBotanical Prints books past the 3,000 volumes milestone in November – now totaling 3,003 botanical eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here. Click on any sample image below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume.

Enjoy the November 2024 eBotanical Prints!