New South Wales, Australia just a little while ago. Plates from the second edition of David Collins’s “An account of the English Colony in New South Wales, from its first settlement in January 1788 to August, 1801. Published in London in 1804.

A view of the Governor’s House at Rose Hill in the township of Parramatta. 1804. Page 139 of David Collins’s work An account of the English Colony in New South Wales, from its first settlement in January 1788 to August, 1801. J Heath, engraver. Collections of the Victoria Museums. Atlas of Living Australia, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/172462#page/139/mode/1up

Bywater to Parramatta with a distant view of the western mountains taken from the Wind mill hill at Sydney. Stamped National Museum Melbourne. 1804. Page 173 of David Collins’s work An account of the English Colony in New South Wales, from its first settlement in January 1788 to August, 1801. J Heath, engraver. Collections of the Victoria Museums. Atlas of Living Australia, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/172462#page/173/mode/1up

An Eastern view of Sydney, taken from a small prominence neigh the New barracks. Stamped National Museum Melbourne.1804. Page 211 of David Collins’s work An account of the English Colony in New South Wales, from its first settlement in January 1788 to August, 1801. J Heath, engraver. Collections of the Victoria Museums. Atlas of Living Australia, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/172462#page/211/mode/1up

View of Sydney on the South side of Norfolk Island. Stamped National Museum Melbourne. 1804. Page 387 of David Collins’s work An account of the English Colony in New South Wales, from its first settlement in January 1788 to August, 1801. J Heath, engraver. Collections of the Victoria Museums. Atlas of Living Australia, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/172462#page/387/mode/1up

More visions of the Arctic, these from 1824 and of the native Eskimaux. William Edward Parry’s “Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Performed in the years 1821-22-23 in His Majesty’s Ships “Fury” and “Hecla.” (Captain Parry’s journal) Published in London.

Canoe of the Savage Islands: Hudson’s Strait. Page 63 from William Edward Parry’s Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Performed in the years 1821-22-23 in His Majesty’s Ships “Fury” and “Hecla. Drawn by Captain Lyon, Royal Navy. Edward Finden, engraver. Collections of the Smithsonian Institution. Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/150739#page/63/mode/1up

Interior of an Eskimaux Snow-Hut: Water Island, 1822. Page 217 from William Edward Parry’s Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Performed in the years 1821-22-23 in His Majesty’s Ships “Fury” and “Hecla. Drawn by Captain Lyon, Royal Navy. Edward Finden, engraver. Collections of the Smithsonian Institution. Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/150739#page/217/mode/1up

Family of Eskimaux. 1822. Page 222 from William Edward Parry’s Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Performed in the years 1821-22-23 in His Majesty’s Ships “Fury” and “Hecla. Drawn by Captain Lyon, Royal Navy. Edward Finden, engraver. Collections of the Smithsonian Institution. Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/150739#page/222/mode/1up

Not sure how accurate these are but very early.

Landscapes of a Levant that isn’t coming back. Colored lithographic plates from C. W. M. Van de Velde’s 1857 work “Le Pays d’Israel.” All of the landscapes are of what was then part of the Ottoman province of Syria.

Le Pays d’Isreal: Wady Fasail le Torrent de Kerith. Page 16 of C. W. M. Van de Velde’s Le Pays d’Israel. Published in Paris, France in 1857 by Jules Renouard. Printed in Paris by Lemercier. Cc0 License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/cwm-van-de-velde-le-pays-d-israel-1857/page/16/mode/1up

Beirout: Vue prise de la route de Schemlän. Page 17 of C. W. M. Van de Velde’s Le Pays d’Israel. L. Sabatier, lithographer. Printed in Paris by Lemercier. Cc0 License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/cwm-van-de-velde-le-pays-d-israel-1857/page/17/mode/1up

Le Village de A’Beyh: Mont Liban S. E. de Beirout. Page 18 of C. W. M. Van de Velde’s Le Pays d’Israel. Eugene Ciceri, lithographer. Printed in Paris by Lemercier. Cc0 License 1.0. via https://archive.org/details/cwm-van-de-velde-le-pays-d-israel-1857/page/18/mode/1up

Images of the polar sea from back when the arctic was the last frontier. Taken from Edward L. Moss’s work “Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6.” Published in London in 1878.

Lunar Haloes: This is a sketch from the floes alongside the ship, of an unusually distinct Paraselena that appeared on 11th December, 1875. The haloes and cross round the moon are caused by the passage of her light through a tissue of impalpably minute needle-like crystals of ice slowly falling through the atmosphere. The snow-covered hills of Floeberg Beach are in the background, and in the foreground two officers are measuring the site with a sextant, while the long-lost Sally looks on. In summer the sun was often surrounded by a similar meteor, but intensely dazzling and tinted with colors like an outside rainbow. Plate VIII, page 84 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n84/mode/1up

Plate IX- The Dawn of 1876. H.M.S. ‘Albert” in Winter Quarters – page 49: Dawn in the latitude of Floeberg Beach is a season rather than an hour, and the growing brightness skirts round the whole horizon almost impartially. This is a sketch very early in March, looking north at midnight. At the time it was made, the spirit thermometers on the small stand, and on the tripod seen to the left of the ship, registered -70 degrees Fahrenheit. The outlines were made without much difficulty, with a pencil pushed through two pairs of worsted mitts. The colours were laide on the warmth and candlelight between decks,  and verified by repeated trips into the cold. In regions where wind could crush the ice together, or where open water existed to leeward, Arctic ships have more than once been blown to sea with the ice at their winter quarters; and, as a precautionary measure, our ship was secured to shore by chain cables, raised at intervals on casks to prevent them soaking into the sea. Page 86 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n86/mode/1up

Plate X – The ‘Albert’ in Winter Quarters, From Amongst the Barrier Bergs, March, 1876. P 50. Nowhere is it more true that ‘the low sun makes the color’ than in the Arctic regions. The ice and snow, that are wearily white in midsummer, glow with all sorts of opaline tints in the sunrise lights of March. The sketch is from amongst the floebergs to seaward of the ship. The sides of the berg in the center have been worn into columns and alcoves by the surface floods of some former summer; but it has since been forced higher on the beach, and into shallower water. Snowdrifts fill up all the gorges and ravines amongst the bergs, and are in some places so hardened by wind and infiltration of seawater, that tidal motion cracks and fissures them, especially round the grounded bergs. Page 94 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n94/mode/1up
Plate XI – WINTER QUARTERS, FROM AMONGST THE FLOEBERGS, LOOKING SOUTH. March 1876 – page 50 Quarter of a mile north of the “Alert” a field of polar floe had been pushed on shore, and split up into a number of floe bergs, with lanes and streets between them. This view of our winter quarters was obtained from the top of one of the fragments. Beyond the ship, Cape Rawson may be seen forming the western portal of Robeson Channel, while away across the strait the snowy hills of Greenland make the eastern. Page 102 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n102/mode/1up
PLATE XII – A FLOE BERG, SIMMON’S ISLAND, APRIL 1876 – page 59. The great stratified masses of salt ice that lie grounded along the shores of the Polar Sea are nothing more than fragments broken from the edges of the perennial floes. We call them floe bergs in order to distinguish them from, and yet express their kinship to, icebergs – the latter and their parent glaciers belong to more southern regions. Partly because it was a conspicuous point to push on for before halting for lunch, the floe berg on Simmon’s Island became a familiar landmark in the many trips of the supporting sledges across Black Cliff Bay; and the chill hour, while tea was preparing, was often spent in speculating on the enormous force required to push the huge square mass so high on shore. Page 106 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n106/mode/1up
PLATE XIII – ON THE NORTHERN MARCH, APRIL 8, 1876 – Page 60. On the sixth day’s march of the united northern and western parties from the ship, this sketch was outlined in pencil while the sledges passed across a floe, little if at all under one hundred and fifty feet in thickness. Like most heavy floes, its edges were piled with rubble ice, cemented and smoothed off with snow drift, showing a perpendicular wall outside, but sloping inside to the general undulating surface. The easiest road lay right across it, and with the aid of picks, a natural gap in its walls was soon converted into a practicable path. The united crews of the “Bull-dog” and “Marco Polo” are hauling the latter sledge down through the gap, while the “Challenger’s” and “Poppie’s” have just reached the spot with the first of their sledges. . Page 114 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n114/mode/1up
PLATE XV – BACK FROM THE FARTHEST NORTH – Page 65. On June 14, the northern detachment, with the relief sledges sent to its assistance, returned to the ship from its ten weeks’ march over the polar floes. The detachment had started northward seventeen strong, but only four remained able to pull in the drag belts, and of these one was the officer in command. Frost-peeled and sun-burnt, with stiffened knees, and faces and clothes stained with stearine smoke, these four led the way alongside the ship, flying the Union Jack they had carried a month’s hard march beyond every predecessor. Page 130 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n130/mode/1up
PLATE XVI – THE LAST OF THE PALEOCRYSTIC FLOE, KANE’S OPEN POLAR SEA, CAPE CONSTITUTION, FRANKLIN AND CROZIER ISLANDS IN THE DISTANCE, AUGUST 20, 1876 – Page 81. As the ships returned southward, they steamed through a large “polynia,” or water space, in Kennedy Channel. It was on a still night, late in August, and the ice-locked sea was calm enough to be the veritable “Peace Pool.” A few last fragments of polar floe lay here and there in the water, strangely reflected, and a dovekie swam beside one of them. Far away to the east, between Franklin and Crozier Islands, Cape Constitution rose above a faint line of pack.  It was Kane’s farthest point. From its base, Morton, looking on another such polynia, had naturally enough reported an open Polar Sea. The sea was open now as far southward as could be seen from the crow’s nest, and yet both ships were in difficulties before morning, and a hundred miles of Smith’s Sound pack still separated them from the North Water and home. Page 147 of Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6. Collections of and digitalized by the Boston Public Library. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/shoresofpolarsea00moss/page/n146/mode/1up

Sir Edward L. Moss was an artist and esteemed Royal Navy Surgeon, was part of the expedition and recorded this journey from his first-hand seat in the belly of HMS Alert . So a double role. All these expeditions included an artist.

More tropical plants, these taken from Christoph Jacob Trew and Georg Dionysius Ehret’s “Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum”, published in Nuremberg, Germany. These being from the first edition so ca. 1750. Taken from a recent Sotheby’s catalog. All are part of the same lot.

ANANAS (Pineapple): aculeatus, fructu ovato, carne albida. Plumerii, Tournef. Inst. P. 650. Plum. Cat. Spec. p. 20. Plate II from Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. Image © 2021 Sotheby’s. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/trew-christoph-jacob-and-georg-dionysius-ehret

MAGNOLIA: folie ovato oblongis ad basin et apicem angustis ? virentib. Plate LXII from Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. Image © 2021 Sotheby’s. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/trew-christoph-jacob-and-georg-dionysius-ehret

JXIA. Plate LII from Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. Image © 2021 Sotheby’s. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/trew-christoph-jacob-and-georg-dionysius-ehret

Flower (and avocado) pictures from different volumes of “L’illustration horticole journal special des serres et des jardins” by Charles Lemaire, Jean Jules Linden, Ambroise Verschaffelt, et al which came out between 1854 and the 1890s. Part of a recent Sotheby’s Auction.

Anthurium scherzerianum: schott; variety Madame De Smet-Duvivier. Plate LXXXII from L’illustration Horticole. Image © 2021 Sotheby’s. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/lemaire-charles-jean-jules-linden-ambroise

Chrysanthemes d’automne (varieties nouvelles): 1. Jane; 2. Admiral Sir Thomas Symons; 3. Lady Randolph Churchill. Plate LXXXIII from L’illustration Horticole. Image © 2021 Sotheby’s. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/lemaire-charles-jean-jules-linden-ambroise

Anthurium scherzerianum: schott; variety Madame De La Devansaye. Plate LXXXIX from L’illustration Horticole. Image © 2021 Sotheby’s. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/lemaire-charles-jean-jules-linden-ambroise

Persea Gratissma Gaern. (Avocado) Plate LXXV from L’illustration Horticole. Image © 2021 Sotheby’s. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/lemaire-charles-jean-jules-linden-ambroise

Victorian era animal pictures, taken from the 1840s “The Naturalist’s Library” which was edited by Sir William Jardine. Hand-colored engraved plates by W. H. Lizars. Taken from a current Sotheby’s auction.

The Bactrian Camel. Plate 1 from a volume of The Naturalist’s Library. 1840s. Hand-colored engraving. W. H. Lizars, engraver. Sir William Jardine, editor. Image  © 2021 Sotheby’s. Artwork itself in the public domain due to age. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/jardine-sir-william-editor-a-complete-natural

Felis Leo (Lion). Plate 2 from a volume of The Naturalist’s Library. 1840s. Hand-colored engraving. W. H. Lizars, engraver. Sir William Jardine, editor. Image  © 2021 Sotheby’s. Artwork itself in the public domain due to age. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/jardine-sir-william-editor-a-complete-natural
White bodied grackle. From a volume of The Naturalist’s Library. 1840s. Hand-colored engraving. W. H. Lizars, engraver. Sir William Jardine, editor. Image  © 2021 Sotheby’s. Artwork itself in the public domain due to age. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-2/jardine-sir-william-editor-a-complete-natural

Travel to India and back by the Cape Horn route on a sailing ship back in 1859 if only in your mind. Lithographic plates from John Corbet Anderson’s 1859 work “To India and back by the Cape” which was a self-published guide book for adventurous travelers.

Madeira. Page 14 of To India and back by the Cape. 1859. John Corbet Anderson, artist. Collections of the University of California Libraries. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/toindiabackbycap00franrich/page/n14/mode/1up

Teneriffe. Page 17 of To India and back by the Cape.1859. John Corbet Anderson, artist. Collections of the University of California Libraries. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/toindiabackbycap00franrich/page/n17/mode/1up

Tristan da Cunha. Madeira. Page 33 of To India and back by the Cape. 1859. John Corbet Anderson, artist. Collections of the University of California Libraries. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/toindiabackbycap00franrich/page/n33/mode/1up

Off the cape in 40 degrees South: sighting an iceberg. . Page 40 of To India and back by the Cape. 1859. John Corbet Anderson, artist. Collections of the University of California Libraries. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/toindiabackbycap00franrich/page/n40/mode/1up
Ceylon. Page 47 of To India and back by the Cape. 1859. John Corbet Anderson, artist. Collections of the University of California Libraries. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/toindiabackbycap00franrich/page/n47/mode/1up
Calcutta. Page 52 of To India and back by the Cape. 1859. John Corbet Anderson, artist. Collections of the University of California Libraries. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/toindiabackbycap00franrich/page/n52/mode/1up
Pilot Signal at the Sandheads. Page 60 of To India and back by the Cape. 1859. John Corbet Anderson, artist. Collections of the University of California Libraries. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/toindiabackbycap00franrich/page/n60/mode/1up
Saint Helena. Page 83 of To India and back by the Cape. 1859. John Corbet Anderson, artist. Collections of the University of California Libraries. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/toindiabackbycap00franrich/page/n83/mode/1up

Make your new house look very old even if it is new. Decor ideas from back in time, taken from H. Davis Benn’s work “Style in furniture” which was illustrated by W. C. Baldock. Published in London in 1920.

Elizabethan I. Plate 1, page 3 of H. David Benn’s Style in Furniture. W. C. Baldock, illustrator. Collections of the Robarts Library at the University of Toronto. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/styleinfurniture00bennuoft/page/n4/mode/1up

Henry-the-Eighth armoire. Now in the possession of Mr. J. Seymour Lucas, R.A.). Page 4 of H. David Benn’s Style in Furniture. W. C. Baldock, illustrator. Collections of the Robarts Library at the University of Toronto. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/styleinfurniture00bennuoft/page/4/mode/1up

Elizabethan. Page 22 of H. David Benn’s Style in Furniture. W. C. Baldock, illustrator. Collections of the Robarts Library at the University of Toronto. MSN, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/styleinfurniture00bennuoft/page/22/mode/thumb

More plates in gold and pretty colors from “Historic Styles Of Ornament containing 1,500 examples from all countries.” Translated from the original German of H. Dolmetsch and published by B. T. Batsford in London in 1898. Maybe it looked like this in Ancient Greece, maybe not. Either way they are fun.

Greek: ornamental architecture and sculpture. Page 22. British. Collections of Ohio State University. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/HistoricStylesOfOrnament/page/n22/mode/1up
Greek: Polychrome architecture. Page 26. British. Collections of Ohio State University. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/HistoricStylesOfOrnament/page/n26/mode/1up
Greek: Pottery. Page 28. British. Collections of Ohio State University. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/HistoricStylesOfOrnament/page/n28/mode/1up