Category Archives: History

A Night at the Garden

Posted on August 16, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

As we face an existential crisis which challenges whether the United States will remain a democracy or sink into a cesspit of neo-Fascist, Christian White Nationalist repression, it is worth remembering our history and examining how close we came in … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Film, History, USA | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

A Hieroglyphic Travel Guide

Posted on August 10, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Regular visitors to Travel Between The Pages may recall that my niche market as a bookseller has long been travel guides and travel literature. I recently discovered this unique 1815 travel guide to Madeira and the Caribbean that is illustrated with … Continue reading →

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Marginal Medieval Memes

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Even if you don’t geek out over illuminated manuscripts as much as I do, there’s a good chance that you will be entertained by the short video below. It’s likely that you’ve seen images from medieval manuscripts depicting both real … Continue reading →

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Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture, whether of cover cloth, glazed jacket, or flexible paperback. – John Updike Today is international Paperback Book … Continue reading →

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To Live Deliberately

Posted on July 12, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Writer, philosopher, and naturalist Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. Associated with the Concord-based literary movement called New England Transcendentalism, he embraced the Transcendentalist belief in the universality of creation and the primacy of personal … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Freedom of Speech, History, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Librarians on Horseback

Posted on July 7, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

The Pack Horse Library Project was a  wonderful Works Progress Administration (WPA) project that delivered books to remote regions in the Appalachian Mountains between 1935 and 1943. The program created thirty libraries and served more than 100,000 people in rural communities. … Continue reading →

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How Does Venice Work

Posted on July 6, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Venice is a romantic and intriguing destination, but its unique situation and history make for a myriad of challenges. The canals, the sewers, the buildings, the bridges and the rest of the Venice’s infrastructure has all been engineered to deal … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Europe, Film, History, Public Transport, Tech, Tourism | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Paris to Zermatt in only 20 hours

Posted on July 4, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Regular visitors to Travel Between The Pages are well aware that I am a sucker for travel posters. I especially love historic tourism and railway advertising artwork. Recently, I fell down a rabbithole exploring the brilliant poster art by the … Continue reading →

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The Oldest House in NYC

Posted on June 30, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Having spent quite a bit of my childhood in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn, I am more than a little chagrinned to admit that I never visited the oldest house in NYC which is located there. In fact, … Continue reading →

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Civilization Begins

Posted on June 22, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

I recently stumbled upon a link to Mesopotamia Online which is an immersive exploration of Mesopotamian art objects. The exhibition Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins was on view in 2021 at the Getty Villa. It was organized by the Musée du Louvre, … Continue reading →

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