Thursday, December 27, 2012

HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD BOOKS

This week as we thought about another year coming to a close, we took another look around the shelves in the Bullis Room and wondered how many of these books are at least a century old.  A quick search identified a few books published in 1912, and we were interested to see what people were writing about a hundred years ago. Here's a list of some of them:


Aristotle, on the Athenian Constitution
 by F. A. Kenyon published in London

Howney's Cookbook
by Maria Howard, published in Boston

History of London
by Helen Douglas Irvine, published in New York

Self-Propelled Vehicles...Automobiles
James Homans, published in New York

Butterfly and Moth Book
Ellen Robertson Miller, published in New York

New York State Museum, Report of State Botanist 1912 (Mushrooms)
Published in New York


So now we know some of the things people were "into" way back when: cooking, constitutions, self-propelled vehicles, butterflies and moths, mushrooms, and London history. Wonder what people will be writing about in 2112...???






Sunday, December 16, 2012

GRIMM TALES

This last week we were thinking about which book (or books) we might highlight in our next post, and suddenly came to the realization that we haven't done much with the fiction side of the collection lately.

Since December 20 marks the 200th anniversary of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's publication of their first volume of  Children's and Household Tales, this is the perfect time to let you know about the Bullis Collection's copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales (published by J. H. Sears & Co.). This book is showing its age, a result of being enjoyed by readers for a hundred years or so, but it's still readable.
So we invite you to stop by and again enjoy some of these two-centuries old stories.

And if any of you happen to have a copy of the Sears publication of Grimm's Fairy Tales,  could you let us know the publication date of your copy? We'd appreciate it.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

CHARLES DARWIN

In 1859 Charles Darwin, the British naturalist, published On the Origin of Species, which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection. One hundred fifty-three years later we are still talking about Darwin and his theory.

Are you one of those interested in this subject? If so, have we got some good stuff for you to read. In fact, this collection has 19 volumes about Darwin's work, and you can sit in the cozy atmosphere of the Bullis Room and read every one of them. Honest!

Let us know when you want to stop by.