Browse Items (17 total)

Drawings and doodles in books are always fascinating for what they can tell us about the child artist. In these images there are two illustrations of navy vessels, one more complete than the other. They are incredibly detailed, as far as book doodles…

Books are often more than just things to be read, they can also be vessels for creative outlet, like this book was for whoever pasted in and wrote stanzas of poetry into the back page and back inside cover. The handwriting is difficult to make out in…

This image features a patriotic poem titled "Red, White, and Blue" that someone wrote into the book pages. It is a simple poem that the writer obviously took their time to write, drawing lines on the page so their writing would be straight and…

A photograph of two women was found within the pages of a book.

These images depict how a book was bound with a floral fabric, perhaps to prevent damage, as well as the inside of the back cover where a picture of a bride was pasted in, perhaps the owner of this book was a young girl who hoped to one day be a…

This book was a treasure trove of paratextual elements! The owner used it as a safe place to stick little pieces of paper that meant a lot to her, including a valentine of a rabbit that reads "Honey Bunny" on the other side, a list of vocabulary…

Have you ever loved a book so much that you would pass it on to someone else? In this book there are two inscriptions, the first reads "Addie Howe from her friend A. M. Deay November 1877." The following inscription then follows with "Edward Winslow…

One of the best parts of inscription paratexts is how the give you so much concrete information about the former owner of the book. In this image the inscription reads "Lucinda Hunley, Book Norfolk, June the 21 1801" and from this we get a name,…

Here we have an unusual book that features an inscription: "A. R. Perkins from his mother on his 9th birthday from his mother" The inscription isn't unusual in itself, from it we learn the child's name and the age he was when he first received the…

This image features the bookplate from the front inside cover from "Scenes of wonder in many lands" that reads "Given by The Southburgh Knights Club/ Mr Andrew's School to William Blair/ 2nd class 1st Prize for General Improvement / 17th July 1868 /…