The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

The Johnson Automatic Perspective Machine

Mark hired me to do some HTML work for his company. Basically, jazz up some pages for a demo of his product, Seminole. So I figured some graphic images, a logo-type deal, would be nice for the hypothetical, Internet enabled toaster we're doing for a demonstration (later on, we might add a consumer grade router type device, but I'm still getting used to his templating system and working with what he's done so far). I'm not that graphically savvy to create logos and whatnot so I decided to check the net to see if there were public domain clip art that could be appropriated.

There does exist a nice body of public domain clip art, but not much that is accessible by website. Sure, there are websites that will sell you CDs and books of public domain clip art (such as Dover Publications), but they don't make it directly available via their sites.

But I did find two sites that had some Victorian/Edwardian era clip art.

I have a thing for late 1800/early 1900 line art.

During the 80s, Wendy's design motif was turn-of-the-century and all the counter and table tops where decorated in old advertising. I used to love reading the various advertisements and gaze at wonder at the line art. The intricate detail. The cross hatching. The various line weights. Beautiful stuff.

And now I'm drooling over Heck's Pictorial Archive of Nature and Science (which inspired many of the O'Reilly book covers), Heck's Pictorial Archive of Military Science, Geography and History and Heck's Pictorial Archive of Art and Architecture.

Drool. Drool. Drool.

But guess what Ftrain should showcase (besides the Johnson Automatic Perspective Machine, write for particulars to Shaw & Johnson, Tampa, Fla) but hundreds of magazines from the late 1800s to early 1900s, with tons and tons of public domain Victorian/Edwardian clip art. All online.

Drool.

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