vintage children's books online
June 11, 2012 7:31 PM   Subscribe

vintage children's books my kid loves (a blog) & scans of vintage Little Golden Books (scroll down a bit) & The Children's Object Book (1880s) & if you want to read and look at even more vintage children's books online, you could start with browsing the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature with almost 6000 classic books (some may be unsuitable for modern sensibilities)

More collections of antique & vintage children's books online at:
*the Library of Congress (kids and teens)
*the Rosetta Project
*International Children's Digital Library
*the Children's Library at Archive.org
*Children's Literature Bookshelf at Project Gutenberg
*Young Readers section at Classic Reader
*Baldwin Online Children's Project
*children's section at Munsey's and at Munsey's mobile site
*children's books & classics at Kellscraft

*links to all the Oz books (illustrated)
*Lewis Carroll & James Barrie (Peter Pan) at the Classic Literature Library
*vintage fairy tales at SurLaLune
*fairy tales on Google Books

*books should be free (free audiobook classics)
*web-books downloadable (free "web books viewer" from the site is required)
*Young Readers section at manybooks.net (free e-books)

(subject via the children's object book, 1880s on kate beaton's tumblr)

previously: rosetta project 2010 and 2003 (also linked by victorian illustrations) - int'l children's digital library (also linked by tiki's trip to town)

and so many more previously: the children's books illustrators archive - vintage children's books from the netherlands & antiques from germany & more vintage from france here (and here) - illustrations from '70s Japanese children's books - soviet children's books of the '20s & '30s & children's books of the early soviet era

vintage children's books illustrations - alices in wonderlands - goody two-shoes (links LoC) - thornton w. burgess - miroslav sasek - freud's niece - unexpected children's authors - this magical book (updated link under "virtual exhibits") - richard scarry 1963 & 1991 - what every child should know
posted by flex (11 comments total) 97 users marked this as a favorite
 
Perfect!
posted by growabrain at 8:49 PM on June 11, 2012 [2 favorites]


Thanks so much! My kids are gonna be grown up with kids of their own before I get through all this.

And they haven't even been conceived yet.
posted by themanwho at 9:39 PM on June 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm going to be stuck with the Little Golden Book page alone for hours.

On the plus side, if I can snaffle the scans and make a pdf I have save a lot of money not buying copies for any kids that come into my extended family, and protect my own cherished LG books.

They can read 'em on the iPad.

I was thumbing through a sale lot the other day of LGBs and I swear every single one was a licenced property. The lack of the Little Red Caboose made me sad.

Some books may be unsuitable for modern sensibilities (Little Black Sambo), but I think they're important historical artifacts which must be saved and shared with kids at the appropriate time.
posted by Mezentian at 9:54 PM on June 11, 2012


Oh wow! A marvelous, generous post! Thanks flex for the treasures to explore!
posted by nickyskye at 11:51 PM on June 11, 2012


Pokey Little Puppy FTW!
posted by shortyJBot at 4:00 AM on June 12, 2012 [2 favorites]


Yayyyy The Color Kittens, the best book ever that I had memorized by age 4 and pretended to read. Nice poetry, nice pictures, and it told you how to mix colors.

"green as cat's eyes, green as glass
by streams of water, green as grass...."

Lovely.
posted by mermayd at 4:16 AM on June 12, 2012 [2 favorites]


Totally agree wtih ShortyJBot.

I bought a few Golden Books for my son.

Richard Scarry FTW!!!!!!!!!
posted by stormpooper at 8:14 AM on June 12, 2012


Wonderful. Thank you!
posted by safetyfork at 12:22 PM on June 12, 2012


Baldwin library! I researched there during grad school. It's a totally magical, Rowlingesque place.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:09 PM on June 12, 2012


These are the sorts of posts that make me love MetaFilter! You know, one of those few posts that actually put a smile on your face. :-D
posted by Mael Oui at 8:00 PM on June 12, 2012


We Too Were Children, Mr. Barrie... "a Compendium of Children’s Books by Twentieth Century 'Adult' Authors Currently Out of Print".
posted by knile at 12:33 AM on June 14, 2012


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