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 It is considered an essential part of the subject's historical reference works, and is on Cornell University's list of Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA).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 ...