These came in a folder that I found in an old box of maps and blueprints from an architect’s estate.  Although not a book, they are in the public domain and interesting so I thought I would post some crude copies. I have not edited them or cleaned them up, and there is some loss to the margins on most of them because they were a bit too large for a scanner.   The actual plans are almost all there, though.  I figure anyone who is interested can clean them up after download if need be (although they are perfectly usable as they are now).   I have posted them at very high resolution (about 6500 by 4500 pixels) to preserve details and lettering.

I gather this series, all from 1920-1920, was an effort by the Alpha Portland Cement Company to promote the use of concrete and cement in building.   I think I have almost a complete set here, but I have no definitive reference as to what plans were included.

As always, these high resolution JPEG  images are all free of charge and ready to be downloaded one at a time or in bulk via a ZIP file.  Donations to support this site and project are always welcome, but by no means required.

Many of the originals I sold on eBay for $10 to $30 each.  There is a small market for these as collectibles.  I am happy to sell any originals I still have for $10 each.  Here are the titles of those still available:

Here, in no particular order, are many sample images.   All 38 or so images may be browsed and viewed in their full resolution in the GALLERY.

Combination Barn and Silo

Combination Fireproof Barn - Stalls for 20 Cows and 5 Horses

Concrete Boat Landing

Concrete Cattle Dipping Vat

Concrete Cellar Steps with Slideways

Concrete Curb and Gutter

Concrete Driveway and Culvert

Concrete Gate Posts

Concrete Hotbed

Concrete Poultry House

Concrete Poultry House (other side)

Concrete Sidewalk Construction

Concrete Steps and Porch with Suggestions for the Construction of Forms

Concrete Storage Cellar

Concrete Storage Cellar for Fruit and Vegetable Farm with Washing and Packing House

Design of Hopper Feeder for Soft Coal Handling

Design for Concrete Dam

Fire Proof Milk House

Concrete Tennis Court

Greenhouse with Concrete Walls, Floors and Benches

Ice House with Concrete Walls Containing Ice and Milk Rooms

Plan for Underground Concrete Tank with Capacity of 15000 Gallons

Ratproof Corncrib

Reinforced Concrete Coal Pockets

Reinforced Concrete Septic Tank

Two Types of Winter Hog Houses Constructed of Concrete Throughout with Concrete Feeding Floor and Troughs

Type of Dipping Vat for Hogs and Sheep

Type Reinforced Concrete Building for Warehouse or Storage

Types of Small Concrete Retaining Walls for Terraces and Embankments

Typical Details for Concrete Foundations

Sectional Concrete Flower Box and Garden Seat

Silo with Reinforced Concrete Walls, Foundation & Roof

Small Building of Reinforced Concrete with Reinforced Concrete Roof

Small Concrete Storage Cellar

Smoke House of Reinforced Concrete - Fire Box Placed on Outside of Building

Spring House of Reinforced Concrete

Two Types of Garden Pools of Concrete - Cast with Foundation in One Continuous Operation

Two Types of Manure Pits of Concrete Construction - Simple Uncovered Pit and Covered Structure with Overhead Runway from Barn

Two Types of Watering Troughs of Concrete - Cast with Foundation in One Continuous Operation

Please feel free to take the images and use them to make your own products or any other purposes. However, if you wish to see the pre-made products available for purchase, many of which use pictures from this site, you may browse the Zephyrus Books Old Book Art gallery at Zazzle.

Any purchases you make of these products has the added benefit of helping to support this site. which is never a bad thing.

SAMPLES:

Dragonflies in Flight by ZephyrusBooks
design your own coffee mugs On zazzle
Browse Insects Mugs

Ounce (Snow Leopard) by ZephyrusBooks
Create a Custom Neck ties With www.zazzle.com
Browse other Places Regional Ties

Europa and the Bull by ZephyrusBooks
See other posters At www.zazzle.com
Browse Gods Goddesses Posters

Wilderness Embrace by ZephyrusBooks
Make your own note cards online at Zazzle.com
View other Fine Art Cards

WASP by ZephyrusBooks
Many more t-shirts online at zazzle.com
Browse Graphic Design T-Shirts

The Man in the Moon looked out of the moon by ZephyrusBooks
Design a personalized tshirt Using zazzle.com
Browse more Graphic Design T-Shirts

Adirondack Survey Sketch – Verplanck Colvin Map by ZephyrusBooks
Browse the poster Designs at Zazzle.com
More United States Posters

Why Does the Site Exist?

Simply to share public domain resources.  Zephyrus Books comes across a lot of antiquarian books with wonderful old illustrations in the public domain.  Many of these are not available for public sharing anywhere on the internet, at least not in an easily accessible or larger scale format, so this site was started as a free resource for anyone looking for out of copyright images.

Are There Any Fees of Costs At All?

No, unless you choose to make a voluntary donation.

Why Would I Want to Donate?

To offset site costs.  While this site is in no danger of disappearing, there are ongoing hosting costs and labor to scan, clean up and research good images.  Even a few $10 or $25 donations per month make a substantial difference in the budget.

Are There Restrictions On How I May Use the Images?

No.  Commercial or personal use for any purpose is perfectly fine.  We post only public domain content and as such cannot put any restrictions on it.   Even though we have scanned it and perhaps edited it, the changes are not substantial enough to warrant any claim to any proprietary interest.   We love getting credit and links, though.   Please see the “About” page for more information.

Do You Have a Newsletter or RSS Feed?

Yes we have a feed, but have discontinued out newsletter.  Now that our feed is in place it is easier for many people to use this instead.  Additionally, with the new blog format of the main site it is easy to see new additions simply by visiting the site.  Posts are shown newest first, so unlike the old site you do not have to browse around looking for recent changes or additions.

Do You Have an Anti Spam Policy?

Yes. OldBookArt.com is part of a group of associated websites, which includes ZephyurusBooks.com and TheBookPuzzler.com. Any communication with these sites will be held in confidence unless specific permission is granted. As this site is sponsored (i.e. paid for) by Zephyrus Books and sometimes administered by the Book Puzzler, answers to questions or communication may sometimes come from these domain names.  Any list or newsletter we produce will only be sent to those who specifically authorize it.

Do You Have a Privacy Policy?

Yes. OldBookArt.com and its subdomain sites (including but not limited to www.gallery.oldbookart.com and shop.oldbookart.com) do not store any information about visitors.  Users who create and account will have minimal information such as user name and log-in information stored. This information will never be shared or used for any purpose other than log-in in, posting, or other legitimate site functions that the user agrees to in order to fulfill the purpose of their visit.

In addition, we use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.   Specifically:

• Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site.
• Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.
• Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

Please continue to give me any feedback about how this new site looks to and works for you. I appreciate all input and will continue to tweak things to make it work better. I have added a translator box now which I hpe will help any non-English reading guests. I will “de-stickify” this post soon.

- John

I have expanded the material somewhat to include things I have not scanned myself. This is mostly material that other people have shared with me, but also may include material from sources with online archives such as the Library of Congress. Examples include some world maps and the work of David Roberts. While these are sometimes available elsewhere, there is often a fee involved, or the resolution quality is low, or they are archived in a format that is hard to access for many people. They also often need extensive editing or cleaning up, which I have done to make them as ready to use as possible.

While this site remains a sideline, it has taken a lot of time. I am always happy to receive feedback or help, in the form of books, images or similar raw material, or cash donations to help with the many associated costs. There is never a fee or obligation for using material here.

To the best of my knowledge, everything here is public domain. Please let me know if you believe otherwise. All material that originates with me (i.e. that I have scanned myself) is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. Essentially, this means you may use the material for any purpose and redistribute as long as you acknowledge the source and release all derivative work under a similar license. Please read the Creative Commons License to be clear. For this site, a simple link and “Courtesy of OldBookArt.com” statement would suffice. Although this is not required, and you may use the images without attribution, I have put a lot of work into scanning and posting and would appreciate the courtesy.

I could probably try to claim some type of proprietary interest in the images I scan (such as noted below) as I have put a lot of work into editing and adjusting them. I could then forbid commercial or competing usage, or ask for a fee. That would sort of defeat the purpose for the site though, and discourage sharing overall. I know I have always hated finding nice public domain material only to ne charged through the nose for it. I only ask for donations here if you can afford it.

Any material that originated from another website or archive, while also in the public domain, may or may not have certain usage restrictions. Some institutions, such as the New York Public Library, require permission and a usage fee for any material from their site. Although the material is in the public domain, they claim a right as the “physical rights holder” which essentially means that because they own the book and scanned the book that they get to control the digital image. They charges $50 to $200 for a single image, and will not even allow you to post images from their site on a website if you get any income (such as Google AdSense) from that site. I am sure this is legal, or at least defensible as I have seen a lot of argument on both sides, as they are a big institution and must have researched it with their lawyers, so I would be careful.

Other institutions, such as the Library of Congress and the University of Texas, are a lot more generous and lenient. As long as the images are public domain they place no restrictions on usage. So check the sites thoroughly.

Any articles or posts I put up will indicate if the images came from a source other than me. I will state if I did not scan the images myself and give a link to the source. These post will also be in the category “Web Archives: Links to & Samples from Other Internet Collections.”

If you need to contact me my name is John and I can be reached using that (john) as my email address at this domain name (oldbookart.com).

PRIVACY & COOKIE POLICY

OldBookArt.com and its subdomain sites (including but not limited to www.gallery.oldbookart.com and shop.oldbookart.com) do not store any information about visitors. Users who create and account will have minimal information such as user name and log-in information stored. This information will never be shared or used for any purpose other than log-in in, posting, or other legitimate site functions that the user agrees to in order to fulfill the purpose of their visit.

In addition, we use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.   Specifically:

• Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site.
• Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.
• Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.