eBotanical Prints – October 2025

Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in October – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive.  The publication dates span from 1750 (Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini – the second on the list) to 2007 (Benjamin Smith Barton: naturalist and physician in Jeffersonian America…the seventh on the list). There are two series:

Revue bretonne de botanique pure et appliquée from the early 1900s. The volumes were edited by Lucien Daniel, a professor of applied botany at the University of Rennes.

Bothalia, a publication of the National Herbarium at the University of South Africa in Pretoria from the 1920s and 1930s.

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,223 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from October’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 October 2025 eBotanical Prints

Collection des fleurs et des fruits, peints d'après nature * Prevost, Jean Louis, The Younger * sample image * 1805

Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini * Ehret, Georg Dionysius; Haid, Johann Jacob; Trew, Christoph Jacob * sample image * 1750

Revue bretonne de botanique pure et appliquée no. 1-2 * Daniel, Lucien * sample image * 1906

Revue bretonne de botanique pure et appliquée no.5-6 * Daniel, Lucien * sample image * 1910

Revue bretonne de botanique pure et appliquée no.7-8 * Daniel, Lucien * sample image * 1912

Botanicum medicinale : an herbal of medicinal plants on the College of Physicians list * Sheldrake, Timothy et al * sample image * 1768

Benjamin Smith Barton :naturalist and physician in Jeffersonian America * Crosby, Marshall R.; Duggan, Eileen P.; Ewan, Nesta; Hollowell, Victoria C. * sample image * 2007

Revisión de las especies de Paspalum para América del Sur austral * Zuloaga, Fernando O.; Morrone, Osvaldo * sample image * 2005

Botanical illustration * King, Ronald * sample image * 1978

An album of Chinese flora * Chinese School * sample image * 1800

Collection of fruit bearing plants executed by one or more Chinese artists for Dr. Thomas Ward * Chinese School * sample image * 1828

The culture of the Central American rubber tree: botanical investigations and experiments * Cook, Orator Fuller * sample image * 1903

The Chayote: a tropical fruit * Cook, Orator Fuller * sample image * 1901

Bothalia - V1 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1924

Bothalia - V2 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1928

Bothalia - V3 Part 1 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1930

Bothalia - V3 Part 2 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1937

Bothalia - V3 Part 3 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1938

Bothalia - V3 Part 4 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1939

Bothalia - V4 Part 1 * National Herbarium, University of South Africa, Pretoria * sample image * 1941

Life Magazine in 1942

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 1942, I saw the impact of Pearl Harbor on the nation and the magazine. There every week there were articles about the war and even the ads contained references to the war. It was a voice that both reported on and promoted the active support of the war effort by everyone.

(Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version and the links to see the whole magazine online.)

 Life Magazine 1942-01-05

Life Magazine 1942-01-12

Life Magazine 1942-01-19

Life Magazine 1942-01-26

Life Magazine 1942-02-02

Life Magazine 1942-02-09

Life Magazine 1942-02-16

Life Magazine 1942-02-23

Charles H. Bennett – Illustrator

Charles H. Bennett was a British illustrator; 5 of his books that are available from Internet Archive are this week’s pick for eBooks. They were published between 1857 and 1872; the last one was published after his death in 1867.

He died early leaving his wife with 8 children and another on the way; his colleagues thought so highly of him that they raised funds to help the widow – enough that more than a decade after his death she claim to have ‘means derived from dividends.’

Andrew Garrett’s Fishes

Andrew Garrett was an American explorer, naturalist, and illustrator. He was born in Vermont in 1823 but spent most of his life (from 1857 to 1887) on pacific islands including Hawaii from 1857-1863). He was completely self-taught…became a skilled artist and adventurer/scientist of shells and fishes. The 7 volumes that are my ‘book of the week’ are his watercolors of fishes; they are available from Internet Archive. This work became the baseline of south sea fishes for the next generation of ichthyologists.

 Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V1

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V2

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V3

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V4

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V5

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V6

Andrew Garrett (1823-1887) collection of 489 original watercolour drawings of South Sea fishes V7

eBotanical Prints – September 2025

Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in September - available for browsing on Internet Archive.  The publication dates span over 300 years – 1570 to 1888!

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,203 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

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

Album of field plants and cultivated plants * Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques * sample image * 1580

A collection of fruits from the West Indies, drawn and coloured from nature * Byam, Lydia * sample image * 1800

Drawings of tropical flowers and fruits, from South America * Empson, Charles * sample image * 1830

Botanical manuscript of 450 watercolors of flowers and plants * anonymous  * sample image * 1740

Collection of seventy-eight water color plates of plants * anonymous  * sample image * 1700

Tulpenboeken * Marrel, Jacob * sample image * 1670

Album of watercolors of Asian fruits and flowers * anonymous  * sample image * 1798

Plantes des environs de Paris * Turpin, Pierre Jean Francois * sample image * 1805

Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae, sive, Icones generum * Bauer, Ferdinand * sample image * 1813

Piante varie * Garzoni, Giovanna * sample image * 1650

L'art de peindre les fleurs a l'aquarelle : précédé d'un traité de botanique élémentaire, et orné d'un choix des plus belles fleurs * Dufour, Augustine * sample image * 1837

Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe V1 * Seder, Anton; Gerlach, Martin; Ilg, Albert  * sample image * 1886

Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe V2 * Seder, Anton; Gerlach, Martin; Ilg, Albert  * sample image * 1886

Conversations on the botany of the Scriptures * Coxe, Margaret * sample image * 1837

Water-color sketches of plants of North America and Europe - Volume 12 * Sharp, Helen * sample image * 1888

Album of Chinese watercolors of Asian fruits * anonymous  * sample image * 1810

Paintings of Flowers, Butterflies, and Insects * Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques * sample image * 1570

Roland Thaxter sketch book * Thaxter, Roland * sample image * 1886

British grasses * Wharton, Elizabeth and Margaret * sample image * 1802

The compleat florist * Robsinson, J. (seller) * sample image * 1747

Meadowlark – A Journal of Illinois Birds

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 – July 2025

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

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 Craftsman (magazine)

I browsed 47 months of The Craftsman magazine from the early 1900s (1912-1916 back in March. They are available from The University of Wisconsin-Madison digital library. They are a way to understand the way people were living at the time – when my grandparents were children. The sample images I picked show structures, plants, furniture, gardens, homes, pottery, landscapes, and jewelry – even the Christmas tree in Madison Square in New York! Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version…and use the links to browse the whole magazine.

 

The craftsman Vol. XXI, Number 6 March 1912

The craftsman Vol. XXII, Number 1 April 1912

The craftsman Vol. XXII, Number 2 May 1912

The craftsman Vol. XXII, Number 3 June 1912

The craftsman Vol. XXII, Number 4 July 1912

eBotanical Prints – June 2025

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

eBotanical Prints – May 2025

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

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

Life Magazine from 1937

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

Illustrations in Children's Books - Soviet Union 1980s

Internet Archive has quite a collection of books for children published in the Soviet Union for export during the 1980s. I was very familiar with books for children published in the US during the same time because I was reading a lot of them with my young daughter in the early 1990s. The illustrations are the big draw – as the sample images from the books I browsed last January show. They are often colorful…sometimes artsy or whimsical…sometimes realistic. Enjoy browsing some children’s books!

Raggity and the Cloud

Sun Sews a Shirt

Fly away, seagull, fly away

My first book

Little Arthur's Sun Two Armenian Stories

The Craftsman (magazine)

I browsed 24 months of The Craftsman magazine from the early 1900s back in December. They are available from The University of Wisconsin-Madison digital library. They are a way to understand the way people were living at the time – a time when my grandparents were born. Some of the styles look “heavy” by today’s standards…but they were built to last from daily use. Some would still fit into a home today. Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version…and use the links to browse the whole magazine.

 The craftsman Vol. I, No. 1 October 1901

The craftsman Vol. I, No. 2 November 1901

The craftsman Vol. I, No. 3 December 1901

The craftsman Vol. I, No. 4 January 1902

The craftsman Vol. I, No. 5 February 1902

The craftsman Vol. I, No. 6 March 1902

eBotanical Prints – February 2025

Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in February - available for browsing on Internet Archive. They are mostly not in English; there are some in Italian, French, Latin, Spanish, Dutch, and German. The 20 books were published over almost 400 years (1618-2010).

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,063 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

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

Description, vertus et usages de sept cents dix-neuf plantes : tant étrangeres que de nos climats T2  *  Geoffroy, Etienne-Francois; Garsault, Francois Alexander * sample image * 1767

Storia delle piante forastiere le più importanti nell'uso medico, od economico Tome 1 * Castiglioni, Luigi; Bordiga, Beneditto Maria Marco * sample image * 1791

Storia delle piante forastiere le più importanti nell'uso medico, od economico Tome 2 * Castiglioni, Luigi; Bordiga, Beneditto Maria Marco * sample image * 1792

Storia delle piante forastiere le più importanti nell'uso medico, od economico Tome 3 * Castiglioni, Luigi; Bordiga, Beneditto Maria Marco * sample image * 1793

Storia delle piante forastiere le più importanti nell'uso medico, od economico Tome 4 * Castiglioni, Luigi; Bordiga, Beneditto Maria Marco * sample image * 1794

Description, vertus et usages de sept cents dix-neuf plantes : tant étrangeres que de nos climats T1 * Geoffroy, Etienne-Francois; Garsault, Francois Alexander * sample image * 1767

Description, vertus et usages de sept cents dix-neuf plantes : tant étrangeres que de nos climats T3 * Geoffroy, Etienne-Francois; Garsault, Francois Alexander * sample image * 1767

Description, vertus et usages de sept cents dix-neuf plantes : tant étrangeres que de nos climats T4 * Geoffroy, Etienne-Francois; Garsault, Francois Alexander * sample image * 1767

Hortus floridus in quo rariorum & minus vulgarium florum icones ad vivam veramq[ue] formam accuratissime delineatae et secundum quatuor anni tempora divisae exhibentur incredibili labore ac diligentia  * Passe, Van de Passe * sample image * 1617

Common medicinal plants of Darjeeling and the Sikkim Himalayas * Biswas, Kalipada * sample image * 1956

Flórula de las reservas biológicas de Iquitos, Perú * Martinez, Rodolfo Vasquez (editor) * sample image * 1997

Flora del Río Cenepa, Amazonas, Perú V1 * Martinez, Rodolfo Vasquez, Gonzales, Rocio Rojas, Werff, Henk vander (editors) * sample image * 2010

Cassini on Compositae II * Cassubum Alexandre Henri Gabriel de Janaske; King, Robert M.; Janaske, Paul C.; Lellinger, David B. * sample image * 1995

Flora de Nicaragua * Stevens, Warren Douglas * sample image * 2009

A description of the genus Pinus V2 * Lambert, Aylmer Bourke * sample image * 1832

A description of the genus Pinus V1 * Lambert, Aylmer Bourke * sample image * 1832

Naauwkeurige beschryving der aardgewassen V1 * Munting, Abraham * sample image * 1696

Naauwkeurige beschryving der aardgewassen V2 * Munting, Abraham * sample image * 1696

Getreue Darstellung und Beschreibung der in der Arzneykunde gebräuchlichen Gewächse (1813-1814) * Hayne, Friedrich Gottlob * sample image * 1813

Getreue Darstellung und Beschreibung der in der Arzneykunde gebräuchlichen Gewächse (1837-1838) * Hayne, Friedrich Gottlob * sample image * 1813

Victorian Decorative and Applied Arts

The Journal of Design and Manufactures was published between 1849 and 1852. Henry Cole and Richard Redgrave were the editors; both were active in British design education reform of the period. The University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries has 6 volumes (36 monthly issues) in their Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture. The volumes include many illustrations, plates, plans, and mounted samples. Enjoy browsing them!

The journal of design and manufactures Vol. I 1849

The journal of design and manufactures Vol. II 1850

The journal of design and manufactures Vol. III 1850

The journal of design and manufactures Vol. IV 1851

The journal of design and manufactures Vol. V 1851

The journal of design and manufactures Vol. VI 1852

Francis M. (Madge) Fox – Children’s Author

The week’s featured eBooks are six historical books for children - written in the early 1900s (1903-1924) by Francis Margaret (Madge) Fox. It’s interesting to think about how childhood has changed in the past 100+ years…and the books available to them. My grandparents were children during this time and their families were settlers/farmers of the prairie; they likely did not have any children’s books in their households and lived in very rural communities. There were not as many libraries in the US in the early 1900s as there are now and books were beyond the means of many families. Now  we have whole sections of libraries dedicated to books for children! When I volunteer at the used book sales at the library, the ones for children are our most reliable sellers.

 Carlota, a story of the San Gabriel Mission

Adventures of Sonny Bear

Brother Billy

Madge Fox’s papers are held by the University of Michigan Library. Their site has a short biography of her life.

 

Wm. H. Edwards’ Butterflies of North America

As we head into winter – I am thinking about butterflies…how I didn’t see as many (or any species) this past summer. Maybe it is the drought in our area, and they will be more numerous next year. I hope so.

Edwards’ volume is the first of three he produced in the 1870s. The illustrations were done by Mary Peart and hand colored by Lydia Brown and often include more than simply the adult butterfly in the later volumes. They are well worth browsing.

The butterflies of North America

 I’ve not thoroughly browsed the other two volumes yet but I think I found them on Internet Archive as well: Volume 2, Volume 3.

Robert Ellice Mack’s Children of the late 1800s

The week’s eBooks are full of illustrations of children – mostly outdoors. They are probably somewhat idealized but are a window into the view people had of what children should be doing in the late 1800s. Certainly children were outdoors more often then than most children are today.

All round the clock

Sweet nature and other poems, with illustrations

Robert Ellice Mack was the editor of the books – selecting poem written by others and illustrations from several artists. There are other books from him that have been digitized; a good list is on University of Pennsylvania’s Online Books Page for him.