Indulge me; it's my birthday. I love the Arts and Crafts style, a design movement begun around the turn of the (last) century and its adjuncts, Art Nouveau, the Prairie Style, etc. This month's Style 1900 magazine has a feature by Irene M.K. Rawlings on children's book illustrators from that time period, and when two of your passions intersect it's impossible to ignore. I bring to your attention four of the illustrators mentioned in the article, all of whose work I am so in love with that I want to marry it:
Elizabeth Shippen Green -- (1871-1954) Illustrated children's books as well as grown-up books. She studied under the "Father of American Illustration," Howard Pyle, as well as other masters. The article in Style 1900 says of her work "she is best known for her children's book illustrations done in a highly decorative, shimmery style that is often compared to stained glass." This cover for The Very Small Person by Annie Hamilton Donnell (1906) is a fair example of covers from that time, with its cartouche surrounding the title, etc. and a plate from the book pasted on the cover. Often, books were sold with paper dust jackets, but these were typically removed and thrown away (source: Alan Powers, Children's Book Covers). Below is an interior illustration from The Very Small Person:
Read the book in its entirety here. And here's another Green illustration from The Book of the Child (1902):
Clara Elsene Peck -- (1883 – 1968) Another student of Howard Pyle's. She did the cover image and interior illustrations for In the Border Country by Josephine Daskam Bacon (1909) cover shown at left, as well as several other children's books and covers for Colliers