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.

An early 1900s collection of art from hunting days in the Himalayas

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Lieutenant Lionel Bickersteth Rundall’s The Ibex of Sha-ping was published in 1915, the year after he died at the beginning of World War I in the trenches at Festubert, France because of a blundered order. He was 24 years old. The joy he must have felt in the Himalayas during his years in India shows in his artwork included in the book….a glowing reminder of a life that ended too soon. The book is freely available on Internet Archive and is well worth browsing.

The ibex of Sha-ping, and other Himalayan studies

Louis Raemaekers’ World War I Cartoons

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There are two books of Louis Raemaekers’ World War I cartoons available on Internet Archive. He was a Dutch editorial cartoonist noted for his anti-German stance that moved to London in 1915. His collected cartoons published in Raemaekers Cartoons (1917) were quickly translated into 18 languages and distributed worldwide in neutral countries – the US being one of those neutral countries. Themes that appear often in the cartoon are the death of culture/civilization, widows, and controlling Germans (represented by the Kaiser and bulky men with German helmets).

Raemaekers Cartoons

According to the Wikipedia entry for him:He toured the US in 1917 shortly after the US declared war on Germany, giving lectures and interviews….by October 1917, more than 2,000 American newspapers had published his cartoons. The popularization of his work is regarded as the largest propaganda effort of the First World War.

America in the War

America in the War was published in 1918. The cartoons often depict Uncle Sam riding to the rescue and troops fresh to the battle…but there is often a hint that the war was more challenging than they anticipated.

Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration

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There are 45 volumes of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration (German Art and Decoration) magazine available on Internet Archive published from 1897 to 1929. They were edited/published by Alexander Koch in Darmstadt, Germany. Below I provide links and sample images (click on the image to see a large version) for the 45 volumes grouped by decade.

Some observations:

  • There seemed to be more color in the earlier volumes….more photography as time progressed.

  • World War I did not seem to impact the publication very much.

  • Lots of ideas for Zentangle patterns.

  • In the early 1900s, there were many of examples of making a room into an entire living space…hiding the bed behind curtains, screens, or boxing it in.

  • Sometimes lampshades seemed to be made of light weight fabric. This migh be more practical than ever with LED bulbs.

  • The art and decoration in the magazines were not limited to German-made. There were examples from around the world: Japan and China, Africa, North America, and the rest of Europe.

  • Enjoy a bit of history…and maybe some ideas worth reusing in 2022!

Deutsche kunst und dekoration V1 (10/1897-3/1898)

Deutsche kunst und dekoration V2 (4-9/1898)

Deutsche kunst und dekoration V4 (4-9/1899)

Deutsche kunst und dekoration V5 (10/1899-3/1900)

Country Life (magazine) in 1918

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The two volumes of Country Life Magazine from 1918 (V34 and V35) include articles about World War I as it was ending. The illustrations are in color and worth a look --- a window into the way people were thinking about the war just as it was ending…before the passing of time made it into history.

There are also photographs. The one of the US Capitol at night with a reflection of the dome is appealing; photography has always been a technology that can be art as well as utility.   

The other articles in the magazines depict life continuing in relatively ‘normal’ fashion for wealthy people of the time.

It was a very different time than we find ourselves a little over 100 years later although there are similarities too. The 1918 flu was continuing and would eventually kill more people than the war; there were few effective treatments and no vaccine as we have for COVID-19. The capitol in 1918 was not a place a crowd of people would attack although there was a frenzy in the country with social change (increasing industrialization and a migration of population to the cities, electricity becoming more widespread, etc.) that led to the roaring 20s and then the crash into the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Studio International

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I browsed 51 volumes of the Studio International magazines published from 1896 to 1922 over the past month or so. It was a time when the world was changing rapidly – modernizing through industrialization and the World War I years with the 1918 flu overlaying on that challenge. The volumes between 1917 and 1922 are missing. The 1920s were a frenzy of new fashions and cultural shifts. The magazines are a contemporaneous perspective of the time.  

I selected an image from each volume I browsed which are in the grid below – time sequenced; I selected color images but there are more that are pencil sketches or black/white photographs…and more architecture. The volumes are well worth browsing; links to the volumes are below the grid of images. To enlarge any image below, clink on the image in the grid.

Books Illustrated by Joseph Pennell

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During November, I browsed through 24 books illustrated by Joseph Pennell published between 1889 and 1918. The project was initiated by his book on Modern Illustration published in 1894 that I found early in the month. As I browsed through it, it seemed like a good reference to use for searching Internet Archive to find books illustrated by artists he cited; it’s so easy to search for names of authors (even though sometimes the illustrators are not listed in the metadata which makes it harder…then it’s back to the reference or the Wikipedia entry for the illustrator and searching by title).  I opted to start my browsing with Joseph Pennell and collected some sample images from each book for this post. My main interest is the illustrations…the snapshots they provide of places as they were during Pennell’s time.

There are 4 more books  in the 24 where Pennell is the author and illustrator: Joseph Pennell's pictures of war work in England (1917), San Francisco, the city of the Golden Gate (1916), Lithography and lithographers (1916), and  Joseph Pennell's pictures of war work in America (1918). The books of World War I industrial scenes could easily be adjuncts to history classes about that time….most of them gritty…many awe inspiring.  

Then there are the Highways and Byways books by various authors but with Pennell as the illustrator (or one of the illustrators):

Highways and byways in Normandy - Dearmer, Percey; Pennell, Joseph (1910)

Highways and byways in East Anglia - Dutt, William Alfred; Pennell, Joseph (1901)

Highways and byways in Devon and Cornwall - Norway, Arthur Hamilton; Pennell, Joseph; Thomson, Hugh (1897)

Highways and byways in Yorkshire - Norway, Arthur Hamilton; Pennell, Joseph; Thomson, Hugh (1899)

This is another example of how to find books to browse on Internet Archive; a simple search for “highways and byways in” yielded other books in the series that I’ve put on my list to browse... another thread to those others illustrators of Pennell’s time.

3 books were authored by  Henry James with Pennell as the illustrator: English Hours (1905), and A Little Tour in France (1901), and Italian Hours (1909).

Pennell illustrated Maurice Henry Hewlett’s The Road to Tuscany (1904) published in 2 volumes (vol 1 and vol 2).

Pennell was an American but spent his career based in London…but he travelled widely. Aside from the San Francisco book which he authored himself, there are 2 books in the 24 about places in the US:  The Creoles of Louisiana - Cable, George Washington; Pennell, Joseph (1914) and The new New York : a commentary on the place and the people - Van Dyke, John Charles; Pennell, Joseph (1909).

3 books are about places in Italy:

Italian Journeys - Howell, William Dean; Pennell, Joseph (1907)

Gleanings from Venetian history - Crawford, Francis Marion; Pennell, Joseph (1905)

The makers of modern Rome - Oliphant, Margaret; Riviere, Henry Parsons; Pennell, Joseph (1895)

2 books about places in Spain:

The Alhambra - Irving, Washington; Pennell, Joseph; Pennell, Elizabeth Robins (1896)

Castilian Days - Hay, John; Pennell, Joseph (1903)

And then the last 3 that I didn’t group with anything else

Old Chelsea, a summer-day's stroll - Martin, Benjamin Ellis; Pennell, Joseph (1889)

On the Broads - Dodd, Anna Bowman; Pennell, Joseph (1896)

Raiderland; all about grey Galloway, its stories, traditions, characters, humours - Crockett, Samuel Rutherford; Pennell, Joseph (1904)

 

Overall – a lot to enjoy browsing through these 24 books on Internet Archive…great activity for a cold winter day.