If you've been a reader of my Linda's Blog for awhile you know that I've had a long term love affair with dolls, doll patterns, the Victorian era, floral design, genealogy, research, history and books. As far as I'm concerned you can never have enough dolls and you can never have enough books.
So, of course, I would be drawn to illustrations of Victorian girls and their books from the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book of 1889, like the illustration shown above. It appeared in the May 18, 1889 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on Page 420.
It was drawn by Rosina Emmet Sherwood and appeared in a story "The A.O.I.B.R" by Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye. According to her Wikipedia page: "Her story "“The A.O.I.B.R." appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 1889 with an illustration of a child reading. The Rockwell Centre for American Visual Studies cites this as a surprisingly early illustration of a girl reading. The subject of girls reading in the illustration by Rosina Emmet Sherwood is thought rare (like the ones in Louisa Allcott's Little Women)."
The caption reads: "She retired to the society of books." This brings back wonderful memories for me as so many times when I was growing up you could find me like this.
My house is filled with books of all kinds. My love affair with books and reading began very early on. My Mother was an avid reader, my Father was an avid reader, my Grandmother and Great-Aunt were avid readers, and so it was passed down to my siblings and I.
Sometimes she would read me a story. I never minded just sitting there with her. I always knew there would be a story. And, I always felt safe in her arms.
Now, when I read I think about sitting with my Grandmother or listening to my Mom and Dad talk about their love of reading and it brings back warm and pleasant feelings for me.
I have been a firm believer in the value of books and teaching children the love of reading. The more children read, the better they become at reading. And, the more young children are read to, the greater their interest in reading. Reading out loud to children helps them with their verbal skills, enhances their development and teaches them how to express themselves verbally.
I could also be found many times in the same position as the young girl in the illustration above that appeared on the cover of the January 26, 1889 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on page 161. It was drawn by Rosina Emmet Sherwood.
Just look at the concentration on this young girl's face as she's reading. I just love this illustration, too and find the detail in her drawing just beautiful.
If you love to read you know that reading is such an escape. You can literally get lost in a book - at least I can! The book for a brief moment becomes your life and you can imagine that you're experiencing it. To me there is nothing more powerful then your imagination.
Even the most spectacular movie with all its wonderful special effects and cinematography cannot compare to what you own imagination can create. There are no limits and no boundaries to your imagination when you are reading. You can be transporter anywhere and to any time period.
I am a firm believer in books and reading as a way of teaching children. In fact, my Grandchildren can attest to the fact that every Christmas or Birthday when they were kids they knew what at least one of their presents would be from their Grandmother: books.
To me, that is one of the best presents I could give them. By giving them books all the time, I hope somehow I'm conveying a love of reading to them. Reinforcing the value of reading time and time again. Making them think. Hopefully, by developing good reading skills they learn how to think for themselves.
My grandchildren also know I'm a firm believer that there is no limit to your abilities if you can read. You can teach yourself anything because there isn't anything you can't do if you put your mind to it.
The illustration shown above was from the December 8, 1888 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on page 62. It entitled "One Happy Girl" and she's holding a copy of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book. I can imagine at the time that the children anxiously awaited their copies of this weekly magazine for all the pictures and stories. I wonder how many of them delighted in the stories and got lost in them. Imagining all sorts of things.
Sort of like the young girl in the illustration above that appeared in the July 20, 1889 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on page 564.
I just love the expression on her face. So pensive, so lost in thought. Hopefully not as the caption reads: "She sat looking out of the window, feeling very dismal." Sitting looking out the window with her favorite "dollie" and book next to her.
I was watching a show on one of the cable channels a couple of years ago about the greatest invention mankind has ever seen. They counted down through hundreds of inventions until they got to #1. Do you know what it was? The greatest invention mankind has ever seen was the invention of the printing press. Why, because it opened the whole world up to everyone and mankind was never the same again.
There is no doubt that I love dolls, the Victorian Era, history, and books.
As you might recall from a previous Linda's Blog post some of the mixed media projects I created this past summer were mixed media items that required quite a bit of old book papers for collage purposes. So much so I ran out of the book pages.
Well, in looking around the house I found an old Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 that was in poor condition and with some of the pages already missing.
I didn't know where this book came from and who it belonged to. Most of the old books I have belonged to my great Aunt Flossie but I didn't think this was one of hers. The time-frame was right but the book wasn't signed with her name - which she always did on the inside of the front cover.
In looking at the book in poor shape and missing some of the pages I thought it still might be perfect for collage purposes so I started to tear some of the pages out. I didn't tear too many out because right away I found myself looking at some of the beautiful black and white illustrations that were contained within the book.
They were enchanting: illustrations of Victorian children, Victorian girls with dolls, Victorian families, holiday and seasonal illustrations and more. I couldn't help but admire the artistic capabilities of the artists who had drawn them back in 1888 to 1889.
So, while tearing out the pages I started to set some that I really liked aside. Needless to say I wound up with a large pile I wanted to keep. That still left me with a large pile to collage with so I was happy.
Contained within the book were many illustrations of Victorian girls, books, and dolls. Well, as you know, I love graphics of girls and dolls so, for sure, I wouldn't be using any of these for collage purposes.
Well, in looking at some of the illustrations I thought they would be perfect for a new "Victorian Books Toile Design" of custom fabrics.
After removing the background from the illustrations I decided to collage them into a Victorian Toile Design as I have always loved these fabric designs and wanted to create some of my own.
When I was satisfied with the design I decided to create brown, blue, black/white, and burgundy colorized versions of this design as I wanted a Victorian authentic look. Victorian Toile Designs are usually some sort of scene depicting a rural scene, usually involving animals and people.
However, I decided to make my "Victorian Toile Design" a collage of book related illustrations and then to colorize them. I was really happy with my design and knew it would be perfect for creating crafts related custom products like vinyl stickers and scrap-book papers as well as all sorts of custom related products. If you're someone who loves to craft like I do I hope you like my new crafts supplies.
Shown below are the colorized designs for the new "Victorian Books Toile Design" category. So far there are three different designs within each colorized category, which are as follows:
Victorian Books Toile Design - Blue
Victorian Books Toile Design - Burgundy
Victorian Books Toile Design - Brown
Victorian Books Toile Design - Black/White
Victorian Books Toile Design Collection by LWOriginals at Spoonflower
I hope you like my new "Victorian Books Toile" custom product designs.
Victorian Books Toile Designs Free Collage E-Books
Some of the mixed media projects I created this past summer required quite a bit of old book papers for collage purposes. So much so I ran out of the book pages. Truth be told it wasn't the projects themselves that used up the paper it was the number of projects I was creating..... lol
Mixed media, collage and decoupage crafts use a LOT of paper containing pictures, illustrations, graphics, words, ephemera, etc. and I am always on the lookout for papers of this nature. In thinking about some of the crafts projects I wanted to do this summer and fall I decided that some of the Harper's Young People Illustrations from the old book I had would be perfect.
Well, after doing all that and thinking about some of the crafts projects I wanted to do this summer and fall I thought about all the Victorian images I had created and thought it would be nice to offer two free e-books with printable collage sheets that could be used for scrapbook, mixed media, collage, decoupage and other paper crafts.
There are a LOT of images to choose from so I decided to start with the Victorian book related images and separated these into two categories for two e-books: 1) Harper's Young People Books Illustrations and Sayings For Crafts Free E-Book, and 2) Victorian Books Collage Sheets For Scrapbook Free E-Book.
In the first e-book the images are the actual Harper's Young People Books illustrations with the backgrounds removed. In the second e-book the images are several on my Victorian books toile designs in the blue, burgundy, brown, and black/white colorized versions.
My first e-book contains contains fourteen individual 8 1/2" by 11" book collage and sayings sheets.
Mixed media, collage and decoupage crafts use a LOT of paper containing pictures, illustrations, graphics, words, ephemera, etc. and I am always on the lookout for papers of this nature. In thinking about some of the crafts projects I wanted to do this summer and fall I decided that some of the Harper's Young People Illustrations from the old book I had would be perfect.
Well, after doing all that and thinking about some of the crafts projects I wanted to do this summer and fall I thought about all the Victorian images I had created and thought it would be nice to offer two free e-books with printable collage sheets that could be used for scrapbook, mixed media, collage, decoupage and other paper crafts.
There are a LOT of images to choose from so I decided to start with the Victorian book related images and separated these into two categories for two e-books: 1) Harper's Young People Books Illustrations and Sayings For Crafts Free E-Book, and 2) Victorian Books Collage Sheets For Scrapbook Free E-Book.
In the first e-book the images are the actual Harper's Young People Books illustrations with the backgrounds removed. In the second e-book the images are several on my Victorian books toile designs in the blue, burgundy, brown, and black/white colorized versions.
Copyright © 2020 Linda Walsh Originals - All Rights Reserved. For personal use only.
My second e-book contains contains eleven individual 8 1/2" by 11" Victorian toile book collage sheets.
Copyright © 2020 Linda Walsh Originals - All Rights Reserved. For personal use only.
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Patterns, e-patterns, printables, e-printables, e-books, graphics, tutorials, how-to's, articles and other e-products are for personal use only. You may not modify, photocopy, download, upload, post, transmit, display, perform, publish, license, reprint, create derivative works from, mass duplicate, re-sell, digitize, and reproduce in any other form (print, digital or electric) or commercially apply, embed, share, Email, or redistribution in any other means. Use of any of the above is prohibited without the written permission of Linda Walsh.
Patterns, e-patterns, printables, e-printables, e-books, graphics, tutorials, how-to's, articles and other e-products are for personal use only. You may not modify, photocopy, download, upload, post, transmit, display, perform, publish, license, reprint, create derivative works from, mass duplicate, re-sell, digitize, and reproduce in any other form (print, digital or electric) or commercially apply, embed, share, Email, or redistribution in any other means. Use of any of the above is prohibited without the written permission of Linda Walsh.
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Copyright © 2004 - 2024 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.
