parisian

This 1909 publication is a photograph collection of aerial views of the city of Paris and other notable nearby sites, like Versailles. The photographers, A. Schelcher and A. Omer-Decugis, produced about thirty pictures using an oblique point of view and provide a different visual of monuments like the Eiffel Tower in a perpendicular photograph. These photos show the streets and boulevards of Paris captured at a time when aerial photography was in an experimental stage and the results helped alter human perceptions of the world.

This is volume one of a three volume first edition series written and illustrated by Georges-Louis Le Rouge that describe monuments, buildings, and other ‘curiosities’ in and around Paris, Versailles, Marly, Vincennes, and Saint Cloud. They were published in 1771. This volume has 19 exquisite drawings prefacing different chapters. The combined written and visual portrayals provide a wealth of cultural information and help the reader reconstruct the architectural designs of the time.

Le Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris, France, is a small zoo within the larger botanical gardens (Jardin des Plantes) which are part of the Museum of Natural History. Founded with animals from the menagerie of Versailles, which was dismantled in 1795 during the French Revolution, it is the second-oldest zoo in the world. This book, written by botanist and geologist Pierre Boitard, features beautiful etchings of many of the animals found in the zoo and botanical gardens. By 1845, when this second edition was published, Paris had the largest exotic animal collection in Europe.

Paris on Horseback was written and illustrated by French author and cartoonist known as Crafty, whose real name was Victor Eugène Geruzez (1840-1906), specializing in books on horses and hunting. The contents of the book are divided into sections: "Cavalry of Paris," "At the Bois de Boulogne," "At the Races," and "The Art of Falling from the Horse." These satirical and witty observations highlight the transactions and tricks that surrounded acquiring a horse from a Parisian horse dealer. It takes a comical view of French society, the racing world, the horse show, and dressage.