Old Book Art » Web Archives: Links To & Samples From Other Internet Collections

David Roberts / Louis Haghe: Egypt and Nubia

John — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:26:20 +0000

In 1838 and 1839, Roberts spent eleven months traveling and sketching throughout Egypt from Alexandria to Abu Simbel and through Sinai to Petra, Jerusalem, Palestine, and Lebanon. The 247 lithographs that Belgian engraver Louis Haghe then produced at the rate of one a month from the drawings executed during Roberts’ trip were published in six volumes as “The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia” (1842-1846) and “Egypt and Nubia” (1846-1849).

While these are available elsewhere, they are not usually very large or in an easy to use format (or they cost money). These are from the Library of Congress, which has them in unedited TIF files. I have cropped them , edited them, cleaned up any glaring dirtiness, and converted them to JPEG for easy download in the GALLERY.

Title: Egypt and Nubia
Author: David Roberts
Artist: David Roberts / lithographed by Louis Haghe
Publisher: F.G. (Francis Graham) Moon
Date Published: 1846-1849

Click an image to visit the gallery page where it is available in different sized for free download.

Dancing Girls at Cairo

Mosque of Sultan Hassan from the Great Square of the Rumeyleh

Cairo

Tombs of the khalifs, Cairo

Karnac Nov 29th 1838

General view of the island of Philae Nubia Nov 18th 1838

General view of the ruins of Luxor from the Nile 1838

Interior of the Temple of Aboo-Simbel Novr 9th 1838 Nubia

Portico of the Temple of Edfou--upper Egypt Novr 23rd 1838

Entrance to the Great Temple of Aboo-Simble, Nubia (TITLE PAGE)

The Coffee Shop, Cairo

University of Oldenburg Archive: Mushroom Book

John — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:32:28 +0000

The University of Oldenburg has digitized and made available a wonderfully extensive collection of old children’s books, mostly from the 19th century. I came across the collection a couple of years ago when I was researching an old German children’s picture book a colleague had come across. The title was vague enough to begin with, but even with a fairly accurate (if overly literal) translation I could not find any information. Finally I came across the Oldenburg site, and was very pleased with the extent of titles and images available. I found the book, too, one out of about 400 titles they have scanned and posted.

Oldenburg’s images are not the highest quality. For about 20 euros they will sell you a CD of a title with higher resolution images, which is not a bad deal if you need (or want) them. Most books available for free online will yield usable images of between 800 and 1500 pixels, though, so many people will be perfectly happy with what is available. The images are dirty rough though, and need a lot of cleaning. I here have pulled the images from this 1876 guide to mushrooms. In the GALLERY I have posted two versions of each image: the original and then a copy I have played with to remove the age toning and brighten and sharpen th colors. The originals were not great, so the results are spotty and not great quality, but they give a good idea of what you can find in the Oldenburg archives if you root around. All are cropped to remove the waste area.

Remember, these are artistic renderings from a 130 year old book, so do not use the names or the pictures as a guide to what is or is not edible.

Title: Allgemein verbreitete eßbare und schädliche Pilze mit einigen mikroskopischen Zergliederungen und erläuterndem Text zum Gebrauche in Schule und Haus
Author: Wilhelm von Ahles
Artist: ?
Publisher: Schreiber (?)
Date Published: 1876

The full book is available at the UNIVERSITY OF OLDENBURG

Edited versions of the images are here in the GALLERY.

Following are a few samples of the images:

Agaricus arvensis

Agaricus campestris

Agaricus deliciosus

Agaricus emeticus

Michigan State University Map Library

John — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:39:40 +0000

Most Libraries have map collections of one sort or another. Some, such as the Library of Congress (LOC), have digitized such a vast number that it seems as though you could never browse through them all. The LOC is also so big as to be unwieldy at times, and they archive their images in an assortment of formats which are sometimes cumbersome to download and convert in to a more easily readable form.

Smaller collections such as Michigan State University’s are often more focussed, and when you are lucky they even offer good sized images. I say “smaller” when in fact, to quote their website:

“The Map Library houses a collection of general and thematic maps and atlases for every area of the world. The collection consists of approximately 212,000 sheet maps, 14,000 folded geologic maps, and 4,000 atlases, gazetteers and other reference aids including wall maps, globes, CDs and Internet-accessible resources. The collection is especially strong in Michigan, United States, Canada, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, though all areas are collected at some level. Specialized collections include 19th-21st century Michigan county atlases and plat books; a small Braille map and atlas collection of U.S. states and continents; and Michigan Flood Insurance Rate Maps. The sheet map collection includes maps from the 17th to 21st centuries. A major portion of the sheet map collection consists of United States Geological Survey and U.S. Department of Defense products received through government depository programs. Many foreign topographic maps series are also collected, acquired by purchase and through Library of Congress map exchange programs. Other maps include foreign and domestic city and road maps, and maps from magazine subscriptions such as Petroleum Economist and National Geographic. Most supplementary maps from books in the Main Library are also housed in the Map Library.”

Too frequently when you discover a good archive all you can see are small thumbnails, or zoomable images which cannot be downloaded. Here though, although only a miniscule portion is digitized, those maps that are available are great quality and offered as a quick download in JPEG format as a link on the zoomable Zoomify Viewer page. This is the kind of user friendly map page that I wish more collections would offer.

I came across their Online Map Collection when I was cataloging and uploading my own African maps from various atlases. Following are some samples from their African collection. I have somewhat smaller images here, but on their site you can get them at their full scale.

Map of Africa, Mitchell 1867

Africa, J. H. Colton 1876

Afrique (Africa), Lamirault 1886

Afrika Politische Übersicht (Africa - Political Overview), Meyers 1892

Aquatorial-Afrika (Equatorial Africa), Meyers 1892

Ober-Guinea und West-Sudan (Upper Guinea and Wester Sudan), Meyers 1892

Algerien, Marokko und Tunis (Algeria, Morocco and Tunis - Tunisia), Meyers 1892

Agyptenin Darfur und Abessinien (Egypt Darfur and Abyssinia), Meyers 1892

Map of Africa, I. F. Andreevskago 1890

Africa Population, J. G. Bartholomew 1913 / J. M. Dent & Sons

Africa Religions & Missions, J. G. Bartholomew 1913 / J. M. Dent & Sons

Africa - Political, J. G. Bartholomew / Meiklejohn 1922