Rescuing Books From Obscurity

July 28, 2011 6:55 AM

Sifting through The Staxx you'll find excerpts from ancient books about British chimneysweeps, ferns and mosses, Japanese art motifs, ornamental alphabets, and much more.
posted by hermitosis (6 comments total)

What about the Volt?
posted by oneironaut at 6:59 AM on July 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

Looks like a fun place to poke around in. Thanks, hermitosis.

(The entries on Japanese art motifs in mon and fans don't appear to state their sources. Odd.)
posted by likeso at 7:22 AM on July 28, 2011

oooooo
posted by The Whelk at 7:25 AM on July 28, 2011

--don't appear to state their sources. Odd--

That was the first thing I noticed too. And then I looked at the archive view (the best thing about tumblr imho) and I'm fairly sure I've never seen any of the images.

The note at the top there says:

"I search the deepest and darkest corners of the stacks to rescue books from obscurity and share them with you"

So this person (presumably) works in a library (or maybe bookstore) and is scanning all this stuff. I wonder why they don't name the book titles though.
posted by peacay at 7:58 AM on July 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

this person (presumably) works in a library

That would be my bet, as the "How To Know The Ferns" book has a University of Illinois-Urbana sticker on the cover.
posted by fings at 8:05 AM on July 28, 2011

This site is wonderful! Now I can get my cool old book fix without having actual cool old books!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 9:48 AM on July 28, 2011