We saved one of our favorite #LibraryLeaves for last.  These beautiful botanical illustrations from Miller’s Illustratio systematis sexualis Linnæi, published ca.1777, are all painstakingly engraved and breathtakingly hand-colored. (If you think the leaves are spectacular, wait until you see the flowers!) 

John Miller. Illustratio systematis sexualis Linnæi. London : published and sold by the author, 1777.

Hopefully your Thanksgiving preparations aren’t nearly as chaotic as the scene depicted in this humorous trade card! 

Vienna Pudding (Buffalo: Clay and Richmond, [ca. 1885]). Chromolithograph. 

Image depicts  a male server carrying pudding and spilling the tray as a dog runs under his feet. Another man, amused by the scene in front of him, carries a stack of plates and men and women seated at a dining table in the next room watch as the dessert spills.    

We hope it’s been smooth sailing from the weekend and into this #MorrisMonday! 

Mariott Canby Morris, [Group in a rowboat, Boys Parlors Camp, Wildwood, NJ], 1907. Film negative. 

Image depicts a group of boys and young men from the Boys’ Parlors Association in a rowboat on the Wildwood shoreline. Four boys in the center of the boat hold oars to push the boat further into the water. Most of the boys wear bathing costumes. 

Founded in 1887, the Boys’ Parlors Association of Germantown served as a safe space for neighborhood children whose parents worked longer hours in an industrializing city. The name changed in 1907 to the Germantown Boys’ Club after joining ranks with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Marriott Canby Morris served as the president of the club in the first decade of the 1900s.     

With Thanksgiving only one week away, menu planning is officially in full swing!  We doubt our table is going to look as fancy as this one (the number of glasses is particularly impressive) but at least now we know how properly fringe our celery for garnishing!  

Mary Newton Henderson. Practical cooking and Dinner Giving. New York : Harper & Brothers, 1877.

This week our #LibraryLeaves feature is also an early #PublishersBindingThursday present!  

#OnThisDay in 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, four months after the Civil War’s bloodiest battle. At just 275 words, the speech remains one of the most memorable in U.S. history and was a powerful appeal to the American public as to why the Union needed to win the war. 

Henry Bryan Hall, Diogenes his lantern needs no more, an honest man is found! The search is o'er (New York: N.P. Beers, [1865]). Engraving. 

Image depicts  the Greek philosopher Diogenes resting his lamp on an oval framed portrait of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States. Also includes a view of the U.S. Capitol with its original dome designed by Charles Bulfinch.

With the days getting shorter and the temperatures dropping, we’ve found ourselves wishing we were at this beach in Bermuda on this #MorrisMonday! 

Marriot Canby Morris, Looking through Natural Arch, [Bermuda], 1889. Glass negative. 

Image depicts an arch shaped rock formation spanning a beach into a body of water. Two women are seen through the arch standing on the rocky shore.    

The most recent addition to our ever-growing collection of papier mâché bindings, this copy of Friendship’s Token is bound in embossed leather with a painted “mâché centre.” 

Papier mâché was used for decorative bindings in America only briefly, from about 1850-1855. However, we think the painted image here is of the SS Central America, also known as the Ship of Gold, which sank in 1857, dating this binding to a little later. To see more of our collection, check out our Flickr page!.  To see more of our collection, check out our Flickr page!

Friendship’s Token. New York: Leavitt & Allen, n.d. 

We’re featuring more #NaturePrints for the second week of the #LibraryLeaves Challenge! 

Oerii, Joannis. Specimen herbarii typico-vivi … . [Europe : s.n., 1759.]

Now that’s an impressive #NoShaveNovember beard! 

Buckingham’s dye for the whiskers (United States, [ca. 1885]). Chromolithograph. 

Images depict a before and after bust portrait of a man with a long beard. With the foldout closed, the man frowns through a white beard. With the foldout open, the man smiles through his dyed brown beard.