We’re wandering into the storybook kingdom of Peter and the Princess by Carl H. Grabo, with illustrations by John R. Neill and published in Chicago by Reilly & Lee in 1920. Designed for rainy afternoons and dramatic reading voices. –Melissa, DCLA tinyurl.com/6yptyvj5

Partridges & Quails are both galliform birds in the superfamily Phasianoidea. Here are wood-engraved illustrations & a chromolithograph of 4 of them from Animate Creation by the English natural history popularizer J. G. Wood, published in 3 volumes by Selmar Hess in 1885. tinyurl.com/44nwnm3j

Italian painter & wood engraver Bruno Bramanti produced 30 wood engravings for this 1954 Limited Editions Club production of Julius Caesar's The Gallic Wars (fought 58-50 BCE), designed & printed in Verona, Italy at Officina Bodoni by the master printer Giovanni Mardersteig. tinyurl.com/mvh2849b

This week, we’re stepping into the wonderfully unsettling world of Slovenly Peter; or, Pretty Stories and Funny Pictures for Little Children, Heinrich Hoffmann’s infamous collection of cautionary tales in verse, published in 1969 by C.E. Tuttle Co. Melissa tinyurl.com/jbjv2j8u

A Harrying Feathursday This wood engraving of harriers is from an illustrations by German wildlife artists Gustav Mützel and engraved Robert Kretschmer, as published in Animate Creation by J. G. Wood, published in New York by Selmar Hess in 1885. tinyurl.com/5a6emnpd

Today we present some fancy Caslon capitals, borders, & ornaments from The Manual of Linotype Typography, printed by the Plimpton Press for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923. tinyurl.com/28xu9p32

✨ 🐦‍🔥Fairytale Friday 🐦‍🔥✨ This week, we’re following the firebird deep into the forest with Russian Fairy Tales (Golden Press, 1960), translated by Marie Ponsot and illustrated by Gianni Benvenuti. -Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/7ym8nbm3

This Feathursday we offer wood engravings of cockatoos from illustrations by German wildlife artists Gustav Mützel & Robert Kretschmer, published in Animate Creation by the English natural history popularizer J. G. Wood, published in New York in 3 volumes by Selmar Hess in 1885. tinyurl.com/4uf236ud

An Earth Day Wood Engraving Wednesday On this Earth Day 2026, we offer a few Earth Day-friendly wood engravings by members of the Wood Engravers' Network (WEN) from the Fall 2024 issue of Block & Burin, WEN's official journal. tinyurl.com/39ene94x

The account of The Charioteer, or L’Aurige de Delphes as it is published here, was written by French Hellenist and archaeologist Francois Chamoux in 1955 and published in Paris by Editions de Boccard. Gabby, Special Collections Undergraduate Classics Fieldworker tinyurl.com/ysy9x9nz

This week, we're wading into Undine, written by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, translated by Edmund Gosse, & illustrated with woodcuts by Allen Lewis. Published in 1930, this edition feels as carefully crafted as the story itself, delicate, precise, & a little haunting. -Melissa tinyurl.com/5n83eehu

This week’s pick, Pistolero, was created by book artist Louise Levergneux and published in Apache Junction, Arizona, in 2023 in an edition of 8 copies signed by the artist. -Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/48dmv9x6

Happy 414 Day! In celebration, we have images from Milwaukee Then and Now by Sandra Ackerman. For those unfamiliar with the date, 414 day is a chance for residents to celebrate their city’s history and was chosen for the city's area code. Olivia, Art History Field Worker tinyurl.com/ycyyy5ty

This 2-volume edition of The History of the Peloponnesian War by ancient Greek historian Thucydides was published in 1974 by the Limited Editions Club in an edition of 2000 copies signed by the illustrator A. Tassos. Gabby, Special Collections Undergraduate Classics Intern tinyurl.com/hd39btfx

This week, we’ve got Petronella, written by Jay Williams and illustrated by Friso Henstra, published in New York by Parents' Magazine Press in 1974. The premise? A princess sets out to find a prince, not to marry, not to admire, but to rescue. Melissa, DC Library Assistant tinyurl.com/zwuhvy6k

Typography Tuesday Today we present so-called Benedictine capitals, borders, & ornaments from The Manual of Linotype Typography, printed by the Plimpton Press for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923. tinyurl.com/5acbrjep

On this day, March 30, 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward finalized the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2 cents per acre. In commemoration, we have illustrations by Rockwell Kent from Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska. tinyurl.com/27yb3m8d

This week, we’re dipping into Mother Goose: Rhymes, Jingles and Fairy Tales, published in 1896. This richly illustrated volume gathers together an assortment of rhymes, playful, peculiar, and occasionally a bit dark. Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/yw3sj97j

Gwen Raverat is recognized as one of the 1st engravers to break from the wood-engraving traditions of the 19th century & begin the modern era of engravings. This style is evident in Raverat’s engravings for her cousin Frances Cornford’s Spring Morning (Poetry Bookshop, 1915). tinyurl.com/2khmr597

This week, we’re opening The Crane Maiden, written by Miyoko Matsutani, illustrated by Chihiro Iwasaki, and adapted into English by Alvin Tresselt. It was published in New York by Parents’ Magazine Press in 1968. Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/5n6ba2c6

Here is a wood engraving of the exquisitely crested Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) from a drawing by German nature artist Robert Kretschmer, as published in Animate Creation by English natural history popularizer J. G. Wood, published in New York by Selmar Hess in 1885. tinyurl.com/8jpzf2yc

For this St. Patrick's Day edition of Typography Tuesday, we present some Irish-themed chromatic wood type (sorry, only 3 leaved clovers) from an untitled & undated specimen catalog of the Luzern, Switzerland, wood-type manufacture Roman Scherer, produced ca. 1905. Happy St. Patty's Day!!

This week’s selection is Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Czechoslovakia, retold by Virginia Haviland & illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Our first edition was published in Boston by Little, Brown & Company in 1966. Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/mrxz9we8

Here are some European finches from a chromolithographic plate in Animate Creation by the English natural history popularizer J. G Wood, published in New York in 3 volumes by Selmar Hess in 1885, with color prints by the noted Boston lithographing firm L. Prang & Company. tinyurl.com/aex22yax

English/American artist, writer, & illustrator Clare Leighton was a frequent visitor to Cape Cod in all seasons during her lifetime, and in 1954 she produced these wood engravings in Clare Leighton’s Rural Life: An Anthology, published in Oxford by the Bodleian Library in 2023. tinyurl.com/yzjyyy3m

✨ 🎩 Fairytale Friday 🎩✨ This week’s tale is The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss and published in New York by The Vanguard Press in 1938. -Melissa (who suspects some hats have minds of their own), Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/pawmn9my

This sweet chromolithograph of a parrot & a cockatiel surrounded by a bevy of little birds is from Tried by Fire: A Work on China-painting by noted Milwaukee artist & ceramics painter Susan Stuart Frackelton, originally published in New York by D. Appleton & Company in 1886. tinyurl.com/ywvwv87u

This week, we’re celebrating Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World, written by Marilyn Nelson and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, published by Dial Books in 2009. -Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/4sn9jzs3

For our sentimentalist followers, we offer this sweet, little wood engraving, "First Lessons in Flight," of sparrow fledglings in the nest with mama & papa by Hector Giacomelli (1822-1904), from Animate Creation by J. G. Wood (1827-1889), published by Selmar Hess in 1885. tinyurl.com/2rxnnhra

On February 23rd, 1868, William Edward Burghardt DuBois was born in Great Barrington, MA. In celebration, we’re highlighting 2 titles from our Morris Fromkin Memorial Collection, I Take My Stand and The World and Africa. –Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern tinyurl.com/4cyyv25n

Not Every Fairytale Needs a Crown This week, we’re visiting Zeely, written by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Symeon Shimin, published by Macmillan in 1967, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. -Melissa Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/3bn96xc4

This 1916 collection of folk tales from what we now know as western Ukraine, entitled Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, published in London by George G. Harrap & Co., was originally translated into English in 1894 by Robert Nisbet Bain. – Kate, Graduate Fieldworker tinyurl.com/vpmrr95v

This week, we’re stepping into East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North, illustrated by Kay Nielsen and published by Garden City Publishing Company around 1932. -Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/422k4jub

With Valentine's Day coming up, we have grebes in love, which have elaborate mating displays, in this case coming face to face to form a lovely heart shape between them. This illustration is from Bird Portraiture (“How To Do It” Series No. 35) Charles Tunnicliffe. tinyurl.com/mrsyam9y

Irish wood engraver & fine press publisher Robert Gibbings (1889-1959) is noted for documenting his various perambulations in words and images. These images are from among 40 wood engravings Gibbings produced for his 1955 publication Trumpets from Montparnasse. tinyurl.com/yrwrj6js

Typography Tuesday Here are some examples of chromatic wood type borders from an untitled and undated specimen catalog of the Luzern, Switzerland, wood type manufacturer Roman Scherer (1848-1922), produced ca. 1905. tinyurl.com/5tkrn5cv

On February 9th, 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America. Today, we’re highlighting images drawn from three books about Davis and the Confederacy out of our large Civil War Collection. Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern tinyurl.com/4ybkv95h

This week, we’re digging into The Luck of the Bean-Rows, a fairy tale by French writer Charles Nodier, translated into English and illustrated by Claud Lovat Fraser. Our copy was published in London in 1921 by D. O’Connor. Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/5n98233r

Just a few Red Grouse (Lagopus scotica) contemplating the expansiveness of it all. These lovely Phasianidae are from Bird Portraiture (“How To Do It” Series No. 35) by noted British naturalist artist & illustrator Charles Tunnicliffe, published by The Studio in 1945. tinyurl.com/ywvwv87u

Wisconsin illustrator & wood engraver Frank Utpatel was a frequent collaborator with August Derleth. Today we show engravings Utpatel devised for Derleth's 1962 collection of poems, This Wound, printed from the original blocks by Carroll Coleman at his Prairie Press. tinyurl.com/ct6nacmf

Typography Tuesday Here are some "classic" fonts from Specimens of Printing Types from Stephenson, Blake, the Caslon Letter Foundry, Sheffield, published in Sheffield, England by the iconic British type foundry Stephenson Blake & Co. in 1959. tinyurl.com/4cc233m9

On February 2nd, 1653, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (later New York) was incorporated. Today we highlight imagery from this period of Dutch settlement, drawn from The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, by Isaac Newton Stokes. Amanda, SC Graduate Intern tinyurl.com/u2aaj6pd

This week, we’re stepping into Andersen’s Fairy Tales, written by Hans Christian Andersen, and illustrated by Arthur Szyk. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, this collection gathers many of Andersen’s most enduring stories. tinyurl.com/2s3ku7hv -Melissa Distinctive Collections Library Assistant

A Grey Heron Feathursday This illustration of a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) is from Bird Portraiture (“How To Do It” Series No. 35) by noted British naturalist artist and illustrator Charles Tunnicliffe (1901-1979), published in London and New York by The Studio in 1945. tinyurl.com/y576zs2d

Today, we celebrate the birthday of writer & illustrator Jules Feiffer (1929-2025) with images from Some Things Are Scary, written by Kenosha, Wisconsin author Florence Parry Heide, & I’m Not Bobby!, written & illustrated by Feiffer. Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern tinyurl.com/yc6j9754

This week, we’re visiting a familiar fairy tale through a slightly stranger, more theatrical lens with our first edition copy of Beauty & the Beast, retold & illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein, published in 1989 by E. P. Dutton. Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant tinyurl.com/dswxwdf5

Another Animate Feathursday Once again we display a chromolithographic plate from Animate Creation by the English natural history popularizer J. G Wood, published in three volumes by Selmar Hess in 1885, with color prints by Boston lithographing firm L. Prang & Company. tinyurl.com/24ff5ed3

Here is a selection of original, signed wood-engraved prints from the 2020 Wood Engravers’ Network (WEN) Printers Bundles sent in the fall to WEN members along with that year’s issue of the society’s journal Block & Burin. tinyurl.com/2wxart2d

Some stories earn their classic status the honest way, by breaking your heart a little and making you grateful for it. This week’s selection is Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White, with pictures by Garth Williams, published by Harper & Row. Melissa, Library Assistant tinyurl.com/6xkppktk

This print is by the Boston lithographing firm L. Prang & Company for Animate Creation by J. G Wood. Our copy of is a revised edition, adapted to American zoology by Joseph B. Holder, of an earlier British publication by Wood as The Illustrated Natural History in 1853. tinyurl.com/yha8aedz