# library christmas henley illustrations firsteditions signedbooks wintersolstice winter libraryadvent africa victoriafalls childrensbooks childrensliterature victorian mondaymorning oldbooks sciart illustration dogs botany flowers flowerpower bookfair mechelen antiquarianbookfair belgium birds ornithology vegetables halloween halloween19 spooky scary printedhorrotage mcgillrarebooks woodcutwednesday roses specialcollections onthisday sharks engraving shark hammerhead sharkweek oldbook

As we’ve reached the 12th day of Christmas, here are some festive collages created by artist using images from the Library's rare book collection and the Christmas carol 'Twelve days of Christmas' for inspiration🎄

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2019-12-25

For a unique, recycled Christmas gift our shop in is open today from 10-2. Merry Christmas everyone.

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2019-12-24

Today is the

Dark skies of the arctic circle from John Ross's 'Narrative of the 2nd Voyage in Search of the Northwest Passage', 1835.

Only 89 days until Spring Equinox on 20 March!

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2019-12-22

For the 19th day of a reindeer & Sami family, from a 1674 English translation of 'The history of Lapland', by Swedish humanist Johannes Schefferus.
Did you know the Sami are the northernmost indigenous people of Europe?

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2019-12-19

Classic book of the day: 1st edition (1857) of David Livingstone's account of his first mission to southern Africa, including the first published view of Victoria Falls.

More information and illustrations on our website:
https://t.co/gWt4s6mtoY

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2019-12-19

Our Chris Brooks Collection includes several festive books for children, such as 'Snap-Dragons: A Tale of Christmas Eve' by Juliana Horatia Ewing, published in 1888. We love the cover art! 🐉 [Brooks 828.8/EWI]

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2019-12-16

Today is day 16 of so here's a delightful arctic fox from John Ross's 'Narrative of the 2nd Voyage in Search of the Northwest Passage', 1835.

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2019-12-16

Who is the goodest boi?!🐶

A whole mess of puppers, doggos and woofers from 'The Animal kingdom of the Baron Cuvier' (1839)

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2019-12-06

We'll bring some pretty flowers to Stand 25 Mechelen (December 6-8). 772 chromolithographed plates in total. Find out more on our website:

https://t.co/hEyg84CysK

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2019-12-05

For day 3 of here's a little robin from Eleazer Albin's 'A Natural History of (1738-40). This was the first British work of to feature hand-coloured plates, with over 300 by Albin & his daughter Elizabeth.

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2019-12-03

Just in case you felt like making a delicious soup, here's some inspiration from the 'The instructive picture book; or, lessons from the vegetable world' (1858)

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2019-11-18

Happy Halloween! 🧙‍♀️🧹🕷🎃
Come fly with some from
We will be sharing our favourite item ...

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2019-10-31

It's finally Halloween! 🦇🧛‍♂️🕷️

I'll be posting all things spooky from the

collection throughout today, starting with these bats from 'The Animal kingdom of the Baron Cuvier' (1835-40)

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2019-10-31

It's nearly Halloween! What's spookier than losing all of your skin, then losing all of your flesh and innards? Clumsy.

Inside the human body from 'Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle' (1849) from the collection

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2019-10-30

As millions march for change the world over, we're looking to our beautiful avian friends in the Blacker Wood Collection

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2019-09-27

R is for Rosa. Everything is coming up roses in this copy of The first and seconde partes of the Herbal of William Turner Doctor in Phisick [615.3 TUR].

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2019-09-18

Louis de Freycinet was born in 1779

Freycinet voyaged around the world in 1817-20, unusually accompanied by his wife Rose after she was able to pass as a man to be allowed on the ship

The ship, the L'Uranie was wrecked on the Falkland Islands in Feb 1820

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2019-08-07

Getting hammered this weekend?

from ‘Unterhaltungen aus der Naturgeschichte’ by Gottleib Tobias Wilhelm (1799-1800)

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2019-08-03

When is a shark not a shark? When it’s a ghost shark

Ghost sharks are actually fish, whose closest living relatives are sharks

‘Ghost shark’, I’ve just discovered, is also the name of a B-grade horror movie that I DEFINITELY want to watch

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2019-08-02