Design Candy: Rare Books at the Library of Congress

I’m so glad to be back with “Design Candy” here at Publishing Trendsetter – bringing you design inspiration to brighten up your work week. And what a way to return from my blogging hiatus than with a gold mine of gorgeous visuals, brought to you by the Library of Congress! The LoC has many digital collections available with just the click of a mouse, but my favorite of all is the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room. I got lost for hours browsing unusual vintage treasures (especially in the children’s book collection). For designers, it’s a perfect place to search for unique or historical typographic references. Here are just a few of my favorites:

The Baby’s Own Aesop: Being the Fables Condensed in Rhyme, With Portable Morals Pictorially Pointed / By Walter Crane. Engraved and Printed in Colours By Edmund Evans. London; New York: George Routledge & Sons, 1887.

The Children’s Object Book. London; New York: F. Warne & Co., [188-?].

Bright-Wits, Prince of Mogadore / Burren Loughlin and L.L. Flood. New York; Boston: H.M. Caldwell Co., c1909.

Endpapers from The Cheerful Cricket and Others / Jeannette Marks; Illustrated By Edith Brown.Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1907.

Gobolinks, or Shadow-Pictures for Young and Old/ By Ruth McEnery Stuart and Albert Bigelow Paine. New York: The Century Co., 1896.

The Book of the Cat: With Facsimiles of Drawings In Colour / By Elisabeth F. Bonsall; and With Stories and Verses Written for the Pictures By Mabel Humphrey. New York: Fredrick A. Stokes Co., 1903.

Denslow’s Humpty Dumpty / Adapted and Illustrated by W.W. Denslow. New York: G.W. Dillingham Co., 1903.

A Wonder Book For Girls & Boys / By Nathaniel Hawthorne; with 60 designs By Walter Crane. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1893, c1892.

Vieilles Chansons pour les Petits Enfants: Avec Accompagnements/ de Ch. M. Widor; Illustrations Par M.B. de Monvel. Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, [191-].