Evenings on the lake

Le Grand Napoleon des Petit Enfans

Because I've so enjoyed broowsing the children's book archive at the Universitat Braunschweig recently, I decided to convert another title to pdf. So, without further maundering, here is J. Marthold's magnificent Le Grand Napoleon des Petits Enfans (Illustrations by Job.)

Download Legrandnapoleondespetitsenfans.pdf

Annie & Jack In London (Routledge SixPence Series, 1868)

While I've been remiss in my promise to post more SDS material (see here), I thought I'd make up for it by posting a small pdf of a scanned book I recently found in the digital archives of the Universitat Brauschweig (an heretofore undiscovered treasure-trove of 19-early 20th century European Children's books--thanks to Agence Eureka for putting me on the trail).  Because the University's navigation system is particularily Byzantine (esp. for folks like me, who only have nur ein Bischen Deutsch), and in light of my recent reading of Stephan Inwood's History of London, I thought it would be nice to put this title, Annie & Jack In London, in an easily accessible pdf form. The book, part of Routledge's Sixpence series of children's books, details a weeklong visit to London by our young protagonists, along with their decidely Haute Bourgeois parents.  Various popular amusements (Tussaud's Wax Museum, Kensington Gardens, a Pantomime show) are sampled, and a bit of shopping is done before the happpy family decamps.  While I could go into more detail concerning the role of social class in choosing intra-urban transport (for instance, you will notice that on page 7, the family is seen boarding a horse-drawn omnibus--which (according to Inwood) was not always considered an acceptable means of transport for respectable folks. On the cover we see the family comfortable sharing a first-class train compartment--an luxury reserved only for the more prosperous Victorian social classes.) and various other interesting details depicted therein, instead I will just offer the pdf itself: Download AnnieandJackvisitlondon.pdf

Retro-Fashion

Here's a nice little site devoted to Euro-fashion (ready-to-wear, swimwear, what-have-you) of yesteryear.  Some very nice scans of catalog pages, as well as a whole subsection on mid-century French Fashion magazine covers.  Well worth a few minutes of your precious, precious attention.
Link: main.