• 23 Wizard of Oz Illustrations by W.W. Denslow (1900) – Chapter Headers

    This is the second of several posts highlighting W.W. Denslow’s illustrations for the 1900 edition of L. Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz. The first post focused on full-page color illustrations, while this one features the chapter “header” pages. These show up at the start of every chapter and are an entire page in themselves. While they’re not full-color, they do have SOME color, usually either red, green or yellow. To make this collection: I downloaded each image individually, lightly edited them (keeping the vintage aged paper look), then re-uploaded them here. I had to shrink the quality a…

  • Cafe Parfait Alexandria (Coffee Mousse) Recipe from 1913

    Here’s another interesting recipe from the book Ultra Select Dishes for Afternoon Teas, published in 1913. It’s a collection of fancy recipes from high end hotels, and this particular recipe comes from Charles A. Frey, chef at the Hotel Alexandria in Los Angeles, California. It’s basically a coffee mousse dessert, simple but very delicious. Original Recipe CAFE PARFAIT ALEXANDRIA Make a very strong coffee and pour over one pound of cube sugar. Dissolve the same over a slow fire, but do not let it boil, until it reaches twenty-eight degrees. Beat eight yolks of eggs in a kettle which is…

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    Illustrations from The Princess and the Goblin (1920 edition)

    The Princess and the Goblin is a children’s fantasy book written by Scottish author George MacDonald in 1872. It’s one of my favorite books, highly recommend picking it up if you haven’t read it already! This edition, published in 1920 by David McKay Company, was illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith, one of my favorite artists from the early 20th century. I’ve used a scan from the Internet Archive to pull her illustrations for the book out into individual images and then uploaded them here for you all to enjoy. As they’re in the public domain, you can use them for…

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    Illustrations from Rose Fyleman’s The Rainbow Cat (1923)

    The Rainbow Cat is a children’s fantasy book written by British author Rose Fyleman, published originally in 1922. This edition was published by the George H. Doran company in New York in 1923. The art in this book was by American artist Thelma Cudlipp (listed as Thelma Cudlipp Grosvenor on the book itself). I like the balance of clear lines and delicate colors, and especially how cute the cats are! These images were collected from a PDF scan provided by the Library of Congress. They aren’t the clearest, unfortunately, but I thought they were very charming and I wanted to…

  • Author Rose Fyleman Book Index

    Rose Amy Fyleman (née Feilmann, 6 March 1877 – 1 August 1957) was an English writer and poet, noted for her works on fairies for children. Her 1917 poem “There are fairies at the bottom of our garden” was set to music by English composer Liza Lehmann. (Source: Wikipedia) I think she’s one of those authors that’re maybe more popular in her own country– which is probably why I hadn’t heard of her before my research in Victorian/Edwardian fairy tale books, as I’m from the US and she was British! Of course, that means she’s a perfect fit for the library…

  • Author Frances Hodgson Burnett Book Index

    Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children’s novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911). (via Wikipedia) Info The Secret Garden is one of my favorite books, and while I’ve read some of FHB’s other kids books (The Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy) I never knew she wrote so many other books– and most of them for adults! This is a bibliography of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s major works, including novels, novellas (or “novelettes”), and short story collections. I…

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    Poem: THE MAGIC (1903)

    You who saw through my disguise Though I came so poor,Let me bless your true two eyes And your open door.Yes, I am a wonder-child; Hark and tell it not.—With the journey and the cold I had half forgot.Take the charmèd seeds I lay In your open hand:Some would cast them all away, You will understand.Trust the bud to come to flower, Trust the flower for fruit.Listen in the winter-timeFor a cricket lute.Here are blessings all from me —Though they look like tears—For your blessed eyes that see And your heart that hears.I am higher than I seem, Fair as…

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    3 Fairy Poems by Rose Fyleman

    These poems come from the book The Fairy Flute by Rose Fyleman, originally published in 1921. It’s a collection of children’s poems about fairies; I picked these three specifically to share because I like the interaction between the real world and the fantasy world the fairies come from. The featured post image is “The Fairy Queen takes an airy drive in a light carriage, a twelve-in-hand, drawn by thoroughbred butterflies,” from the book In fairy-land (1875). 👉 All posts about fairy tales / All children’s stuff posts / More poetry / More literature IN BOND STREET Upon her little velvet…

  • Lima Bean Soup Recipe from 1898

    This soup recipe comes from The Enterprising Housekeeper (1898), which is a collection of recipes put together by Helen Louise Johnson and published by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania. Inside you’ll find adverts for products the company made mixed with the recipes, and some of them have great images that I’ll no doubt end up sharing here later on. According to the preface for the soup chapter, soups with heartier ingredients like beans can be used for a main dish (if it’s a lighter soup or broth, it should be used as a starter instead). 👉 All Recipes /…

  • 11 Old-Fashioned Wooden Animal Toy Patterns from 1922

    This is a collection of patterns (or wood-making plans) for making old-fashioned wooden children’s toys, specifically ones that are shaped like animals! They come from Baxter, Leon H. Baxter’s Toy Craft, originally published in 1922. The book is meant to for kids to be able to make the toys themselves, so it should be fairly easy for beginner toy makers. I’ve included images of the toys, plus some tips for enlarging them to be the proper size. All of that came from the book itself, so be sure to head to the source if you want any info I missed…