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ppflieger.bsky.social
ppflieger 🇺🇦
@ppflieger.bsky.social
150 followers 41 following 86 posts
Student of early-19th-century American works for children (research at merrycoz.org); and occasional fiction writer
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ppflieger.bsky.social
Given what's going on in the lagoon, no wonder this #turtle looks a little alarmed ... #paleoart #fossilfriday
#bookhistory
Large version of the big turtle, which looks even more alarmed than it did in the complete picture.
July 11, 2025 at 1:16 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
It truly is a plesiosaur-eat-pterosaur (& everybody-eat-everybody-else) world, with a worried-loking turtle, in Elements of Geology, by Samuel St. John (1851) #paleoart #fossilfriday #bookhistory
In a large lagoon, a plesiosaur drags a pterosaur from the sky. Behind it, an ichthyosaur eats a large fish, and behind IT, a small plesiosaur swims. Two pterosaurs swoop through the sky. On the bank, two crocodiles confront each other, while a tiny turtle bites into a plant. A larger turgle looks on the scene, its mouth gaping in what appears to be astonishment.
July 11, 2025 at 1:16 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
5/5
Two hummingbirds of different species hover on either side of a blue delphinium. A ruby-throated hummingbird hovers near a stalk of white flowers. On the other side is a nasturtium plant with a green caterpillar on it.
May 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
4/5
A monarch butterfly perches on a white daisy, which is part of a bunch. Behind it is a nasturtium plant. A yellow, blue, red, and black butterfly perches on a pink flower.
May 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
3/5
A honeybee works a white daisy, which is part of a bunch. Below it, a green-backed hummingbird with a white belly and purple throat works a blue and white columbine. A ruby-throated hummingbird pursues a small blue butterfly.
May 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
2/5
A small black and orange buttefly flutters near a daisy. A tiny red ladybug sits on a leaf near columbines. An orange, black, and white butterfly perches on a pink day lily. Behind it are blue and white columbines. Below it a honeybee works a white daisy.
May 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
1/5 Flowers for May: the magnificent "Flower Power," by Paula Minkebige (Crossed Wing #28), which I still haven't framed #xstitch #crossstitch #flowers #hummingbirds #butterflies
A cross-stitched panel including day lilies, foxgloves, daisies, columbine, and nasturtiums. Nine hummingbirds perch or fly among them, along with four butterflies. Two species of hummingbirds, with foxgloves. One bird is shades of blue and green; the other is shades of red and brown.
May 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
Happy International Children's Book Day! Read 'em and reap!

The book that changed my life, read about age 10. What book changed your life?
Cover of The Diamond in the Window. Cover shows two red-headed children sitting on the stairs leading to the porch of an enormous 19th-century house with a turret. Near the turret is a small window showing a light. (It's the diamond stuck in the window of a mysterious room.) The sky behind the house is printed in bright orange; the house is printed in black, with snow on the roof and the ground.
April 2, 2025 at 5:47 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
1/2 #Spring was the time for making spring whistles in the #19thcentury, as #MaryAnnHallock shows us in #OurYoungFolks; 1870 #clothinghistory #1870s #womanartist #WomensHistoryMonth #womenartists #bookhistory
Three white boys lounge on a porch. Two are blowing long wooden whistles. The third is slipping the bark off a length of willow.
March 20, 2025 at 1:15 AM
ppflieger.bsky.social
I bet you know where & why THIS book was controversial in the U.S.; originally published 1958 #bannedbooks #bookhistory
the cover of a book for children titled "The Rabbits' Wedding," written and illustrated by Garth Williams. Two very fuzzy rabbits stand beside a small stream. The black rabbit holds yellow flowers and helps the white rabbit put one in the white rabbit's ears.
March 6, 2025 at 8:13 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
Where we were in 1852: controversial Bloomer dress, which made women look like ruffly pumpkins. from children's magazine Woodworth's Youth's Cabinet (Woodworth didn't completely approve) #AmericanHistory #WomensHistoryMonth #19thcentury #fashionhistory
Two young white women stand conversing in a room. They wear a LOT of clothing: long-sleeved dresses that end mid-calf, worn over loose trousers. Over the dresses are short-sleeved jackets about knee-length. One woman has a long scarf tied around her waist. The other wears a hat with a brim. Both wear flat shoes. Caption: The Bloomer Costume.
March 3, 2025 at 9:39 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
early brand name #PeterParley makes his debut in Tales of Peter Parley About America, by #SamuelGriswoldGoodrich, 24 Feb 1827; images from 2nd edition, possibly 1828 #OTD #bookhistory #1820s #fashionhistory
A white man stands in front of a distant line of houses. He wears a hat, a long coat over a waistcoat, and knee-length breeches over long stockings. He has one hand in a pocket of his coat and leans on a cane held in the other. He is smiling. Chapter 1 of The Tales of Peter Parley, About America; paragraphs are numbered: "Parley tells about Himself, about Boston, and about the Indians. 1. Here I am! My name is Peter Parley! I am an old man. I am very gray and lame. But I have seen a great many things, and had a great many adventures, and love to talk about them. 2. I love to tell stories to children, and very often they come to my house, and they get around me, and I tell them stories of what I have seen, and of what I have heard."
February 24, 2025 at 3:24 AM
ppflieger.bsky.social
a president worth honoring; a mezzotint of an 1864 photo by Matthew Brady; for subscribers to The Little Corporal, 1865 #bookhistory #AbrahamLincoln #lincoln #presidentsday
Abraham Lincoln, in a mezzotint of the only photograph in which he wears reading glasses, sits in a chair and looks down at a large book photo album. Beside him stands his young son, Tad, who is also looking at the album.
February 17, 2025 at 4:25 AM
ppflieger.bsky.social
A little late (it was Feb 11), but birthday wishes to Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist and editor of The Juvenile Miscellany, 1826-1836 #bookhistory #lydiamariachild #juvenilemiscellany #19thcentury #childrensmagazines
cover of The Juvenile Miscellany for January 1828: a boy shows a book to his dog, which is sitting attentively at his feet. Printed above the illustration are four lines from William Wordsworth: "Dear innocent childhood, my heart/ For better lore would seldom yearn, Could I but teach the hundredth part,/ Of what from thee I learn."
February 16, 2025 at 6:09 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
for a valentine: found in a 19th-century book (probably a bound volume of a children's magazine), a nice little heart in a hand
front: beige paper cut in the shape of a glove with a scalloped wrist. Blue paper cut in the shape of a heart with scalloped edges has been cut so it can be woven into the beige paper. At the wrist of the glove two thin red strips of paper are woven through the beige; between them a thin blue strip of paper has been woven. back: the blue paper from the heart shows through. At the wrist is a thin blue strip woven through the beige glove; thin beige strips of paper are woven through the wrist on either side of the blue strip.
February 14, 2025 at 2:23 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
#mammoth on ice, Charles Livingston Bull; from The Boy Scouts of the North, by Samuel Scoville, 1920: "untouched by time, & intact as when some unknown fate had overtaken it when the last Ice Age overwhelmed the earth" #mammothMonday #fossil #bookhistory
a huge mammoth stands in ice; caption: “Frozen in a solid block of clear ice, towered a monster such as had not walked this earth for ten times ten thousand years”
February 10, 2025 at 4:38 AM
ppflieger.bsky.social
Winter in Ohio, 1950 or 1951: my grandmother's dog ("Foxy") and car (If it's a Model-A, it was my father's.) #1950s #dog #winter
A snowy scene with a small dog in the foreground. Behind it is the rear view of a car from a much earlier decade.
February 9, 2025 at 5:53 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
my favorite #megatherium ("one stroke of its paw would demolish a lion or an alligator"); from "Wonders of Geology," in The Schoolmate magazine; 1852 #bookhistory #fossilFriday
skeleton of an ungainly four-legged creature with HUGE forefeet that have claws. caption: "Skeleton of the Megatherium."
February 7, 2025 at 2:17 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
an editor misunderstands trilobites: "a curious animal which has received its name from the fact that it had three bodies joined to one head." Yeah ... From The Schoolmate, 1852 #bookhistory #trilobiteTuesday
an illustration of a trilobite. caption: "Three-bodied animal."
February 4, 2025 at 3:03 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
2/3 I mean, how adorable can you get? Eyes closed, trunk artistically curled, not a hair out of place … And standing on all four legs, waiting to amaze us. #bookhistory #mammothMonday
a close-up of the mammoth's head and curled trunk
February 3, 2025 at 3:09 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
Prehistory's most delightful #mammoth emerges from the ice in 1799; in The Children's Friend, a Quaker publication; 1871 1/3 #bookhistory #mammothMonday
A fur-clad hunter stands in astonishment at the sight of the head, tusks, and forelegs of a woolly mammoth which has melted from jagged ice. Behind the mammoth is a cliff on which several evergreen trees stand.
February 3, 2025 at 3:09 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
the #labyrinthodon crawls through the Triassic: an unusual layout in Elements of Geology, a book for young readers by Samuel St. John; 1851. 1/3 #fossilFriday #ichnology #bookhistory
part of a two-page spread, with images of labyrinthodon footprints vertical in the margin on the left-hand page; on the right-hand page, a alligator-shaped creature crawls along, leaving footprints. It has no tail, and its hind leg is three times as long as the foreleg. Bones of skull, foreleg, and hind leg are outlined inside the creature. caption: Labyrinthodon Pachygnathus
January 31, 2025 at 2:36 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
It's gray here today, so this fungus on my parents' property in 2008 looks especially cheerful. #fungifriends #fungi
A reallly REALLY orange fungus on the ground, surrounded by dry leaves and tiny green plants. The fungus is ruffly, and the ruffles have white edges. (I think it's a chicken of the woods, but I'm no expert.)
January 30, 2025 at 10:26 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
It's ALWAYS been the Gulf of Mexico (& it always will be); Adams' Geography, 1819 #bookhistory #gulfofmexico
A map from 1819, showing the United States on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River and "Louisiana," "Pawnee Villages," "New Navarre," "Snake Indians," "New California," and "New Albion" west of the Mississippi River. "Gulf of Mexico" is outlined in red in the correct place. Cover of Adams' Geography, published in Boston by Lincoln & Edmands, 1819. The full title reads "Adams' Geography, Containing the following MAPS:--The World, N. America, U. States, New England, S. America, Europe, England, Asia, Africa." In an illustration, a man sits at a square table, consulting a book with his hand on a globe beside him. Behind the table is a harp and a window through which a tree is visible.
January 27, 2025 at 9:11 PM
ppflieger.bsky.social
"bird tracks" in Massachusetts: "The animals which made these tracks are supposed to have been birds, though none of their bones have yet been found in these strata." Samuel St. John. Elements of Geology, 1851. #fossilFriday #ichnology #bookhistory
Three outlined slabs show footprints of three-toed creatures pointing various directions. caption: Bird-tracks in New Red Sandstone
January 24, 2025 at 4:49 PM