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 ...

The Oz books have, of course, gone though countless reprintings and adaptations. As with some other books, I was surprised that the images were not more readily and freely available online. This, the second book in the series, introduces many of the major characters who appear throughout the rest of the books. It also revises the history of Oz a bit, re-casting the Wizard in a less flattering light and changing the history to get Ozma (Tip) into the framework. The entire text of the book (no illustrations) online at Project Gutenberg. Links to the the full text of the first 15 books in the Oz series are available through Gutenberg as well HERE. Title: The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman and Also the Strange Experiences of the Highly-Magnified Woggle-Bug, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Animated Saw-Horse and the Gump Author: L. Frank Baum Artist: John R. Neill Publisher: Reilly & Britton Date Published: 1904 All the images are available for download at full resolution in the GALLERY. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="149" caption=""Tip stood the figure up and admired it""][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="151" caption=""The boy stretched himself upon the grass""][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="147" caption=""'It's the fashion here,' said ...

A fun little retelling of this childhood classic. This was one of a series put out by M. A. Donohue & Company in the early 20th century, none of which indicated authorship or gave credit to an artist. Others in the series included Peter Rabbit, Chicken Little, The Three Bears, and other popular stories of that type. I have also scanned and reproduced here the endpapers, which include all the character from the different stories in a forest together. Granny doesn't get eaten. The woodman is homeless. Little Red Riding Hood climbs on top of the canopy bed and fall asleep there. A few things were changed for this telling. I have included at the end of the gallery full scans of the book so the text is viewable as well. Title: Little Red Riding Hood - Retold Author: unattributed Artist: unattributed Publisher: M. A. Donohue & Company Date Published: 1921 Following are some samples form the book. There are 27 in all, not including the unedited scans of the full text. I have edited them a bit to brighten the tones and eliminate some aging and other small flaws. All the images, large format JPEG and available ...

This is one out of two or three Civil War era books I have scanned images from, each of which has a small number of nice black and white drawings. Days and Nights has eight full page illustrations, all of which I have put in the gallery and linked to using the images below. I have done a bit of touch up as the images were quite age toned and spotted. This book was written and published during the United States Civil War as an attempt to explain and describe the "Great Rebellion." "Carleton" was the pen name of Charles Carleton Coffin. These images are from the 2nd edition (1864), although the book went through many subsequent editions and publishers. It is considered a Civil War classic and remains in print to this day. The entire book (this edition in fact) is digitized at Google Books HERE. Title: My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field: A Book for Boys Author: "Carleton" Artist: Various, or unattributed. Publisher: Ticknor and Fields Date Published: 1863 (1864) [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="149" caption="The Dying Patriot"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="155" caption="The Great Mistake"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Capture of Fort Henry"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="151" caption="Charge of Lauman's Brigade at Fort Donelson"][/caption] [caption id="" ...

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 ...

64 illustrations of fish, birds and mammals. I found this tattered and broken book in a lot of old books sorted into moldy and decrepit boxes. The book was not salvageable and many plates were missing, but those remaining were free of any major defects or stains. The illustrations of the fish, birds and mammals are not the best quality, but I was able to get good scans without having to any major editing or restoration, and the range of species was good enough for me to make an album out of it. Title: Five Hundred Fascinating Animal Stories: With Numerous Colored Plates Author: Alfred H. Miles Artist: Various. Publisher: The Christian Herald Date Published: 1895 The images in the gallery are in the order of fish, birds, and then mammals. Below are some representative images, linked to the gallery page where you can download various high resolution sizes at no cost. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Lobster"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Searobin"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Sawfish"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Blowfish"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Moonfish"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Crab"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Eel"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="117" caption="Shaft Tailed Bunting"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="118" caption="Emeu Wren"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="116" caption="Parrot Finch"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="117" caption="Pine Grosbeak"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="125" ...

As with some other images, I was surprised that good quality reproductions of images by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne) were not more readily available for free. Being public domain and all, and having existed for almost 200 years, one would think they would be easier to find. He illustrated a number of Charles Dickens' works, and although I found some samples on the internet there are few if any complete collections. This is a start, at least. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, AKA The Pickwick Papers, was published serially in 1836-1837, and the first complete edition soon followed. I must confess that I have never read the complete book. The chapters are related, but reflecting their origin the are able to be read and enjoyed individually to a degree. There is a good biography of Phiz at The Victorian Web. These images are from a late 19th century reprint, although there were seemingly hundreds of editions produced from the mid 19th century and on (I'm sure someone has tallied them all). The entire book (an early 20th century edition) is digitized at Google Books HERE. Title: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club Author: Charles Dickens Artist: Phiz Publisher: Chapman and ...

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) rewrote six famous classic Greek myths for this book, first published in 1853. It followed by a year his equally famous A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys. These two books were among his last works and were aimed specifically at a younger audience. The stories in this edition include: The Minotaur The Pygmies The Dragon's Teeth Circe's Palace The Pomegranate Seeds The Golden Fleece Sterrett (1900-1931) died tragically young from tuberculosis. During her short career she illustrated this book as well as works such as "Old French Fairy Tales" by Comtesse de Segur, and "Arabian Nights." Some of these other illustrations (which may not be in the public domain) can be found off this site HERE. Many volumes of the book are digitized on line with the full text available. This edition is available at Archive.org and Google Books also has some texts digitized. There are also sites with Sterrett's images available, although often for a fee. I have made reproductions available for sale HERE, although you may download them for no cost in the gallery by using the link below. As always, the images are free to download in a range of high ...

This is fairly common but often sought after school book or primer first published in 1832. It is a sequel to "First Book of History, by the Author of Peter Parley's Tales" which was for younger students. It went through at least 30 or 40 editions before 1850, which in this case meant printings, and often there was little to differentiate between editions. These images are from the Eleventh Edition , copyright 1835 and printed in 1836. The text is full of woodcuts or a similar type of engraving. These images are small illustrations primarily showing figures in the national dress of various countries,as well as people from English and British history. The maps are, unfortunately, the weakest part of this book. They are woodcuts or likely some other type of engraving. They are beautifully rendered, but they were bound facing each other with no tissue guards, as this was an inexpensive textbook for children. The result is a great deal of shadowing or bleeding from adjacent maps, resulting in a ghost image on each page. I have not tried to correct for this. A feature I find particularly nice about these maps is the mountains. A light black, the ...

Robinson Crusoe certainly ranks up there as one of the favorite books for publishers to reissue with new illustrations. The adventure, the scenery, and the familiarity with the story seem to guarantee an audience no matter the era. Daniel de Foe wrote the book in the early 18th century (1719), and I don't think anyone knows how many editions there have been, nor how many well known illustrators have taken on the challenge of presenting the material in a new light over the subsequent 290 years. Google has digitized many versions, although none with good illustration reproductions of course. You can, however, browse the various editions to get an idea of the different illustrative styles. HERE is a Google Books example from 1831, a Cochrane and Pickersgill edition, where the entire text is accessible. Alexander Frank Lydon (1836-1917) was a British artist who produced a lot of natural history work, including parrots, other birds, and fish among much else. His prints and books with his work show up frequently on eBay at fairly reasonable prices. Here is a list of current Lydon items for sale there. Grooombridge put out this edition in the mid ...

Biggle's Poultry Book was published as part of the small, pocket sized Biggle Farm Library series. These images are from the 9th edition, although the plates did not change between editions (content and chapters were added over the years). It remains very collectible in addition to having a lot of great information and reference material. It is considered an essential part of the subject's historical reference works, and is on Cornell University's list of Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA). It is a very small book, yet the illustrations are so detailed that they scan incredibly well and can be resized to many times their original size. I do not know a lot about Louis Graham, other than he liked to draw fowl. I have heard from a number of people who have original works by him (all birds) and everyone says his the originals are keepsakes and very nice. This book has 16 chromolithographed color plates along with numerous black and white illustrations. I have reproduced just about every scannable image. The color images are at the beginning of the gallery, but some of the black and white details are nice too and would be useful for ...

Many of us, through the generations since their original publication in 1916, automatically associate Wright's drawings with the Mother Goose rhymes. For thousands of people, they are the quintessential images that come to mind whenever a Mother Goose Rhyme is recited. As with many books, I was surprised to find that these images really were not available online in large, quality format. Thumbnails are available, as at Project Gutenberg which has digitized the entire text, but high resolution copies were available only for a fee, if even then. I am grateful to Project Gutenberg in that I was able to use their text to accompany the image i scanned and posted here. Mother Goose, of course, is not the true author of these rhymes. Many have been around for half a millennium or more, and the authorship is considered "traditional." A French author, Charles Perrault, compiled a group of these in the late 17th century. English translations followed and new material was added over the years. The term Mother Goose has some to mean tradition nursery rhymes, even those not technically associated with this historic collection. For this book, I have included extra large versions ...