Horsing around

Walking on stilts is tricky, even for humans. The image is from the November 1883 issue of St. Nicholas children's magazine. But that's all I can tell you, because - oops - I forgot to scan the text with it!

Animal of the day: pugilistic pug

This fighting-fit pug is from an 1892 issue of St. Nicholas magazine. The illustration accompanied a poem titled "The Boastful Pug." Proclaiming himself the "champion of all the little dogs" he throws out a challenge ...

 And the Maltese cat, from a safe place, said:

"To spar with you I'll agree."

"Come down on the ground, then," said the pug;

Said the cat: "You come up in the tree!"  

Animal of the day: woman's best friend

This clever dog is from a poem about Old Mother Hubbard and her animals that was published in 1883 in the book Chatterbox For The Little Folks (John E. Potter & Co., Philadelphia). The book is one of many that was put together - without permission - from material found in the British weekly/monthly. Copyright was a tempestuous issue then, as it is now.

Animal of the day: water ballet

This is one of a series of line drawings accompanying a poem in an 1889 issue of St. Nicholas children's magazine. It is about a man in search of the unusual and he found it with "the Octopus a-waltzing with the whale, whale, whale."

Animal of the day: the elephant in the room

Illustration from St. Nicholas magazine, 1878

A few months ago, while rifling through my collection of 19th century Chatterbox and St. Nicholas magazines, I started to notice wonderful - and, sometimes, bizarre - images of animals. I hadn't paid attention to them before. But, now, as I turned the pages, they seemed to be everywhere.

I started clipping them and scanning them into the electronic archive. There was no motive behind it, other than wanting to save the images. I now have dozens and dozens of them and thought I'd share them during the next few weeks.

Meantime, an idea for them has popped into my head. But, whether that will take the form of a collage or not, well, more about that another time. For now, I just want to release them into the wild ...