vintage picture book illustrations

Forget shoes or jewels or just about anything else, if I could have a collection of anything - it'd be vintage children's picture books. Of course like any collection, building such a library can get expensive, but lucky for me there are some amazing sites that cultivate the images that my greedy little hands want to hold. Below are some lovelies from some of my favorite picture book blogs and websites. Enjoy the feast for your eyes!

The blog "Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves" is a must visit for any picture book lover. The blogger Burgin Streetman has the most amazing personal collection of vintage finds which she discusses in loving detail, shares in great giveaways, and also sells in her etsy shop. I've discovered so many great illustrators (and stories) through her posts, here are a few:

from "This is New York" by M. Sasek, 1960

from "Miss Esta Maude's Secret" by W. T. Cummings (1961)

from "The Fabulous Firework Family" by James Flora, 1955

"Vintage Children's Books" is a flickr pool that has not only shares images from picture books, but also vintage illustrations from coloring books, sketches and greeting cards:

from "Words" by Joe Kaufman, 1963

original sketch of Setting off for the North Pole by E.H. Shepard, 1926

(located at the Victoria & Albert Museum)

from "Frog Went a Courtin'" retold by John Langstaff, illustrationed by Feodor Rojankovwky, 1983

"We Heart Books" is an Australian blog maintained by two mums who also run the We Heart Books Store. They not only share images of the amazing vintage children's books that they grew up with (that are often unknown to American audiences), but also beautiful contemporary Australian picture books. I totally want to be friends with them:

from "Singing Away the Dark" by Julie Morstad (2010)

from "Sunshine" by Jan Omerod, 1982

from "A Little House of Your Own" by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers, 1957

Sadly, the blogger of "Golden Gems" has been on a hiatus for a seriously long time, but her archive of Golden Books is deep and I love to just revisit some of the stunning images created for those slender little volumes:

from "The Animal Fair" by Alice and Martin Provensen, 1952

endpages from "The Large and Growly Bear" by Gertrude Crampton, illustrated by J. P. Miller (1961)

from "A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson

illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, 1951

"Fantasy Vintage Home" is another flickr pool that I adore. Although this pool includes lots of images from ads and magazines, I always end up stumbling upon images of homes from picture books that I want to dive into and live in (no matter whether those homes are supposed to belong to people or mice):

from "See Again, Say Again" by Antonio Frasconi, 1964

from a Slavic (Russian?) children's book, 1968

from "Songs We Sing" illustrated by William Dugan, 1957