Category Archives: Libraries

An ideal library

Posted on August 23, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Petite Biblioteque Gratuite

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I’m a sucker for any story about little free library concepts, especially when they involve repurposing old tech. The city of Geneva, Switzerland has done just that with some of its obsolete public telephone booths. This example can be found … Continue reading →

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Serpentine Saturday

Posted on July 31, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

The wavy patterns on the edges, covers, and endpapers on this tooled and blind-stamped, half-bound book are from Carew’s Survey of Cornwall . This edition was printed in London by Thomas Bensley for J. Faulder and Rees and Curtis in 1811, although Carew’s … Continue reading →

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THE STRANGE HISTORY OF A MYSTERIOUS BEING

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I recently fell down a rabbithole after seeing a reference to 19th century American “Hollow Earth” proponents who toured the country giving lectures on the purported existence of a society living within the earth’s center. Some of these so-called explorers … Continue reading →

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Primary Source

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

It’s now possible to read one of the oldest books of English literature in the world  online.The Exeter Book is a 1oth century anthology of poetry in Old English and one of  only four manuscript books containing virtually all the English … Continue reading →

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Past Perfect

Posted on July 7, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I recently ran across the beautiful photochrome print from around 1900 of the Durango-Silverton Railway above the Animas River gorge in southwestern Colorado. It immediately reminded me of a trip that I took on the same railway line a few … Continue reading →

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Are you ready for fore edge Friday

Posted on June 11, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

  This example for Fore Edge Friday comes from the second edition of The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer to Which are Added an Essay on His Language and Versification, and an Introductory Discourse, Together with Notes and a Glossary by English … Continue reading →

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Go Medieval On Them

Posted on June 6, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Medieval Memes  is a clever, fun project by  the Dutch National Library which takes illustrations from medieval manuscripts in its collection and lets anyone who wants make memes out of them to then share. The reason this is great is … Continue reading →

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A Borrowing of Librarians

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Lord of Books

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

José Alberto Gutiérrez is a former trash collector from Bogotá, Colombia, who  spent over 20 years collecting books discarded by residents during his night shifts. Gutiérrez together with his family created a home library called ‘La Fuerza de las Palabras’ … Continue reading →

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