Stay-at-home shelfie #59

A miscellaneous collection of older volumes here. The super-skinny hardcovers are part of the American Library Association's Reading with a Purpose series from the 1920s and 1930s.¹ Their original provenance was the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry library. I got them a few years ago during the (lamentable) closeout sale of Canaday's Book Barn in Carlisle. You can see one of the old Drexel bookplates at right. Titles include Biology, English History, Invention and Society, The United States in Recent Times, George Washington, Americans from Abroad, The Europe of our Day and 1931's The Pacific Area in International Relations, which contains this nugget:

"The diplomatic history of the Far East in recent years has in fact been largely concerned with the problem of keeping such demands as Japan made in 1915 within reasonable bounds and maintaining on the one hand the territorial integrity of China, and on the other the right of all foreign powers to trade on equal terms in the Chinese market, while at the same time giving China an opportunity to set her house in order and free herself from restrictions on her sovereignty."

Moving along, other eclectic titles include Principles of Clothing Selection (May 2018 post), Choosing an Occupation, Airways, and The Nürnberg Stove, which was featured way back in 2013.

1953's The First Book of Space Travel, written and illustrated by Jeanne Bendick, is as fabulous as it looks. Also on this shelf is my great-grandmother's 1904 book on George Washington, with its protective cover.

Footnote
1. For more on this series, check out these two articles by Salvatore De Sando:

• Publications: Reading with a Purpose, Numbers 1 to 15
• Publications: Reading with a Purpose, Numbers 16 to 29