Architectural accoutrements, 1908
Published May 28th, 2007 in LibrarianshipOne of the pleasures of my job is working with the material the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is digitizing as part of our relationship with the Open Content Alliance. We’ve digitized almost 1000 items thus far, most of them pre-1923 and out of copyright. And among these items are some real gems, such as the Adams & Kelly Co. Official Catalogue, 1908-1909:


Despite their modest claim to provide “everything in millwork,” you can see from the images above that they offered so much more, including stained glass design (in addition to some amazingly beautiful architectural elements and furniture).
I can attest to how well made some of these items were — the doors, windows and trim at the farm all came out of this catalog, and were as well made as you might expect. A little side note: the calculations in pencil at the front of the book were probably made by my great-grandfather as he was figuring out how much it would cost to finish off the interior (mom, any more information you can offer?).
Anyway, enjoy. There’s a wealth of material over at the Internet Archive, and it’s easy to lose yourself browsing their collections.
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Yummy! How did grand-daddy’s book end up at UIUC?
I keep meaning to troll deeper in the OCA Collections for nice little items for this. One of my most favorite things that I’ve ever seen was a sample book for a tile salesman. Each page had hand-painted examples of the tiles and suggestions of how different tiles worked together to create a design.
Thanks!
Kurt, is this the book that came from the farm!???? Wonderful! Did you find anything in it that was at the farm as we knew it???