The Nature Library: Birds and The Nature Library: Garden Flowers, 1926

Two volumes from the Nature Library series, published by Doubleday, Page and Company for Nelson Doubleday in 1926. Birds is written by Neltje Blanchan and Garden Flowers is arranged by Robert M. McCurdy, each volume presenting its subject with the thoroughness and care that defined the series.

The Nature Library made serious natural history readable for home audiences, and Blanchan's Birds in particular remains one of the most approachable early twentieth-century introductions to American ornithology, written by an author who knew both her science and her readers.

Both volumes are illustrated throughout with color plates and black-and-white figures reproducing ornithological and botanical specimens with the accuracy characteristic of the series.

Navy blue cloth hardcovers with elaborate gilt decorative borders and nature vignettes; gilt spine lettering intact; both volumes showing wear at the spine bases and rubbing to the boards consistent with a century of handling. Please review all photos carefully, and email me with any questions.