These colorful William Halsey locomotive-engine prints discovered by peacay of the always-worthwhile Bibliodyssey in the online archives of Southern Methodist University in Dallas would look great printed and framed to decorate the room of a train-obsessed toddler (click on each image for the larger version):

From SMUD:

"The William Halsey Locomotive Drawing Collection contains 84 watercolor drawings by William Halsey (born ca. 1845- died ca. 1900), a railroad enthusiast probably working in the New York region as early as 1863 until the 1890s. [..]

A significant aspect of the drawings is the record of colors and paint schemes used at the time. Some of these drawings represent the only records of this form of applied decorative railroad art to survive. As a group, the engines display a wide range of colors, and frequently display schemes indicative of locomotive builders or the shop’s style that maintained them."

Visit Bibliodyssey for more pictures and information on each engine. And in the same vein, be sure to show any train-obsessed kid a good version of Buster Keaton's classic The General:

Teach them to explore beyond the shores of Sodor!

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

Source: Samantha Wedelich

I love it when readers send in art that they've created based on some post I've written (like here). We've been in Pittsburgh for my brother-in-law's wedding all week, and yesterday I found this sketch (she called it a "doodle") in my inbox from Samantha Wedelich at dwelldeep, meant to illustrate this post (although it seems fit to illustrate our entire past week, where this scene was repeated at rehearsal dinners, receptions, and family gatherings night after night). We're back in the routine of home now, and I am so grateful to have this.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

Bibliodyssey just published links to these amazing Japanese illustrations that look like 300-year-old sketches for a Hayao Miyazaki feature. Back in college I was obsessed with those descriptions by ancient Greek mariners of monstrous men that inhabited the far edges of the world: the Abarimon with backwards feet, the four-eyed Maritimi, the Panotii whose ears were so long they reached their feet, and best of all the Blemmyae, who had faces in their chests and no heads or necks. I don't know enough about Japanese culture from this time period to be sure if these are simply imaginative monsters or perhaps some kind of similar myth about the strange undiscovered creatures still left in the world. All I know is that these are really cool and I can't wait to show them to the kid.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

People by Peter Spier
(un)Fashion by Tibor and Maira Kalman

I remember my mom reading Peter Spier's People with me as a child and I distinctly remember spending hours entranced by the detailed illustrations. And who can forget Adam and Eve's naked butts? When we found out my wife was pregnant the first time my mom bought me a new copy of it. Now my daughter loves it. Before she was born, I also picked up a copy of Tibor and Maira Kalman's beautiful book of photography (un)Fashion at Green Apple Books in San Francisco. When she was about one we started looking at this book, and we look at it together still. Now Gram loves it.*

One of my biggest complaints about the state of modern children's literature is the whole dull industry of "diversity" or "multicultural" books, which with few exceptions generally suck. They're just so earnest and boring. What I love about these two books is that they celebrate diversity just by showing the pure variety of us out there. And in doing so they show just how beautiful we all are.

*(un)Fashion does contain some nudity and several non-grisly images of dead bodies, though I can't think of a book that better celebrates life.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

via

This perfectly illustrates how my wife felt (and what she screamed) while giving birth to both our children without the benefit of drugs. But, you know, way cuter.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

SOURCE: Reference Library

Apron designed by our friend Andy Beach, made by Workers in Japan.

Andy is curating a real world version of his blog Reference Library at Kiosk in Manhattan, November 28–December 7 (with an opening party on Black Friday, November 28, 7–10pm: I assume Andy will be there and you should stop by to meet him---a very cool guy).

Kiosk
95 Spring St. between Broadway and Mercer
Second Floor
New York, NY 10012

If you don't read Reference Library you're missing out on an amazing world of folk design, obscure case goods, kids' stuff, trench art, unusual typography, cool old clothes, and lots more stuff mostly inspired by his adventures exploring the craziest corners of eBay and beyond.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

For years I've been collecting old architectural drafting texts, and I just scanned a bunch of pictures from one published in 1972 full of all kinds of great images that would have been used in architectural presentations. There are about ten pages like this that are all of people in their groovy period dress, and I print them out on 8.5x11 paper and let the kid color them.

Yes, we have truly entered the age of coloring books around here.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

No comment. And depending on howmuch money you have/have not lost in the past couple weeks, you might find this website funny.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

I found this children's book in a Fillmore park for junkies," by Flickr user Josh Douglas.


This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.