Weathering the Weather: The Origins of Atmospheric Science A "glorious selection" of strikingly beautiful pages from classic publications about meteorology. [via plep].
posted by mediareport on Mar 23, 2005 - 8 comments

Smithsonian Catalog of Botanical Illustrations Feel the need for a touch of spring? The Smithsonian offers five hundred images (created by eleven artists) from its vast collection of botanical illustrations. Check out the images in the Curtis Botanical Magazine (1787-1807). For more wide-ranging overviews, try the Scientific Illustrators (1600-present); the Missouri Botanical Garden Library (digitized copies of 46 rare books); this special exhibition at the University of Delaware (general survey); and Haley & Steele (women artists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). Julene Sodt provides an extensive bibliography.
posted by thomas j wise on Mar 8, 2004 - 2 comments

The Missouri Botanical Garden Library has scanned and posted 46 volumes of its rare book collection. 16,133 pages and 2,050 beautiful illustrations are currently available.
As an example, see this engraving of a foxglove by Pierre Vallet from 1608.
posted by thatwhichfalls on Dec 22, 2003 - 7 comments

Let's go on a rocket trip to the Moon! A collection of space art in children's books, 1883 to 1974. These books, and their evocative art, instilled in a generation the romance and wonder of space flight. I grew up in the 1950's, and as a kid I could pour over this book and its illustrations for hours, dreaming.
via A Voyage to Arcturus
posted by Slithy_Tove on Sep 26, 2003 - 8 comments

The U.K.'s answer to Rube Goldberg. Cartoonist W. Heath Robinson, 1872-1944.
posted by crunchland on Jun 20, 2003 - 1 comment

Walton Ford, 1,2,3: Nature Boy.
posted by hama7 on May 7, 2003 - 13 comments

Aiee!!    Pelorosaurus by god knows who, Corythosaurus illustrated by Zdenek Burian, Ornitholestes by Charles Knight--Dinosaur Illustrations has led me to two wonderful sites: Early Image and Paper Dinosaurs, 1824-1969 - An Exhibition of Original Publications From the Collections of the Linda Hall Library, as well as many other little treasures.
posted by y2karl on Nov 22, 2002 - 3 comments

The Umbrella Sail at Last a Reality! Technofetishists will love this fabulous collection of Popular Mechanics covers going back to 1902. Who'd have thought a weaving machine could be so beautiful? Futuristic cityscapes, bizarre weapons, new-fangled sports and surprisingly delicate and artful scenes are just a few of the pleasures in the year-by-year archive. The mag's male-dominated world can get kind of, um, gay, but it's hard to imagine a better display of the joys and fears (especially the fears) of our monkey fascination with technology.
posted by mediareport on Jun 17, 2002 - 40 comments

My new favorite website is explodingdog.com which is the best of a new genre of websites (new to me anyhow) on which an artist creates something based on your suggestions. The artist at this site will draw a portrait of your pet if you donate $75 dollars to an animal shelter. Too bad my hamster died. Another variation on this theme is the digital doodlebox which displays a simple graphic and invites anyone to submit a variation of it. These fun sites have inspired me to add something similar to my site. Do you folks know of any other good sites like these?
posted by grumblebee on Jun 8, 2000 - 7 comments