And now for something totally different...

On Saturday night I spent some time getting lost in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. I love that thing. You can save and download [fairly] high resolution versions of lots of the things in there. Print it up, and you've got some very cool, free art. I've found things for friends, but now that we have a house with bare walls, I'm looking with renewed interest. Instead of keeping the goodies to myself, I thought I'd share some random favorites.

How pretty is this? It's from the Tissandier Collection, approximately 975 items documenting the early history of aeronautics with an emphasis on balloon flight in France and other European countries. There are some really fun balloon drawings that would be great in a kid's room.

There's a huge collection of baseball cards from 1887-1914. These guys played for the Boston Beaneaters!! If Hamish ever gets a baby brother, he might have some vintage baseball card prints in his future.


These sweet girls are studying a map in a sketch by Mary Cassatt from 1890. My kind of girls.

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Here's a photograph of an Egyptian camel transport passing over Olivet, 1918. This would be great printed really large.

Here's a collection of Italian travel posters from the 1920s and 30s. All of these are from cities Mom and I visited on our trip in 2004. (Florence, Abruzzo, Milan, Lakes)


Fun stuff, but a time sink--be warned!