A sucker for old pictures

When I’m tired of reading, I like to peruse image-laden sites, including:

Vintagraph is heavy on WWI, WPA and WWII posters. Some have gardening themes:

Pooster via vintagraph

The same folks (I think) also put out Shorpy, which features mostly black and white photos, mostly Civil War to ’50s, mostly from the Library of Congress, like the one below from the USDA amaryllis show in 1927. (Garden-related photos are few and far between, but I like this tilt-shifty girl with a crow, this opera singer with greenhouse cukes and hoeing beets.)

amaryllis show via Shorpy

Studio g is a relatively recent discovery for me. Anyone into design will find something to like here. The picture below of an early school garden isn’t typical of Rocelle’s content, which more closely resembles Garden Design than Shorpy. I’m just a sucker for old pictures.

old school garden

If you want really old stuff, check out the ‘Visual Materia Obscura‘ and more at BiblioOdyssey. Again, the topics are a wide-ranging blend, focusing mostly on science, history and eclectic bookart. But if you want to go right to the good stuff, visit the posts helpfully tagged flora. Below is Ornithogolum fibriatum from a post about illustrations from a series of early 19th century botanical monographs.

Ornithogolum fibriatum

octopus topiaryBut my favorite eye candy is still to be found at Delphine’s ParadisExpresss. My French is no longer strong enough to translate the words. But who needs to when there’s this much to look at.

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4 thoughts on “A sucker for old pictures”

  1. Thanks for posting this! I didn’t know about any of these sites, and love old illustrations, books, magazines, music, etc. etc.

    Have you browsed the collection of old botanical books at the Missouri Botanic Garden site? botanicus.org

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