Thistle and Bee Press

Woodblock prints, bookarts, other nonsense.

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

I know it's unfair of me to call bugs dumb for not understanding what windows are, but oh my god can't you smell the fresh air or something you buzzy little six legged fool?

[nemfrog]

The dragon. Fictitious & symbolic creatures in art. 1906. 

[clevermanka]

🍁 Xavier 🍁 (@xavierck.com)

Here are 543 images (1.5GB) of items at the Philadelphia Museum of Art arms and armor exhibit You're free to use them for anything, even c

[the-ocean-is-trans]

casual reminder that this museum has their entire collection digitized and available free for public use: https://art.thewalters.org/ and they have armor/weapons there

[creeroumourir]

Edward Coley Burne-Jones. ' The Wood Beyond the World ', ca. 1894.

[spicymochi]

little pumpkin thieves

[spicymochi]

tiny pumpkin thieves!

[concentriccookies]

Finally some new work to show!

I am going to embroider both front sides of this button up, but i know i wont be able to finish the second bit while goldenrod season is in full bloom, so i went out and got some snaps of just half the finished shirt.

Im so excited with how this is coming together! Hopefully i can finish the full thing before fall is over lmao

[mellific]

2 sq. in. of rain at 9:15 AM on 8/6/2025 digital print on translucent vellum, saddle stitch

this book is lksdjflsd SUCH a nightmare to take photos of omg. anyway. i held a sheet of paper in the little drizzle we got a few weeks back & took a slowmo video of the rain hitting the paper in order to accurately transcribe 2 sq inches of rain from outside my front door to this book :)

[girldante]

mesmerized by this 1921 edition of vita nova

[lakecountylibrary]

🔥 The beacons are lit; the library calls for aid

The Trump administration has issued an executive order aimed at dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services - the ONLY federal agency for America's libraries.

Using just 0.003% of the federal budget, the IMLS funds services at libraries across the country; services like Braille and talking books for the visually impaired, high-speed internet access, and early literacy programs.

Libraries are known for doing more with less, but even we can't work with nothing.

How You Can Help:

🔥 Call your congressperson!

Use the app of your choice or look 'em up here: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

Pro tip: If your phone anxiety is high, call at night and leave a voicemail. You can even write yourself a script in advance and read it off. Heck, read them this post if you want to.

Phones a total no-go? The American Library Association has a form for you: https://oneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net/messages/edit?promo_id=23577

🔥Tell your friends!

Tell strangers, for that matter. People in line at the check out, your elderly neighbor, the mail carrier - no one is safe from your library advocacy. Libraries are for everyone and we need all the help we can get.

...Wait, why do we need this IMLS thing again?

The ALA says it best in their official statement and lists some ways libraries across the country use IMLS funding:

An executive order issued by the Trump administration on Friday night, March 14, calls for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Li

But if you want a really specific answer, here at LCPL we use IMLS funding to provide our amazing interlibrary loan service. If we can't purchase an item you request (out of print books, for example) this service lets us borrow it from another library and check it out to you.

IMLS also funds the statewide Indiana Digital Library and Evergreen Indiana, which gives patrons of smaller Indiana libraries access to collections just as large and varied as the big libraries' collections.

As usual, cutting this funding will hurt rural communities the most - but every library user will feel it one way or another. Let's let Congress know that's unacceptable.

[lakecountylibrary]

Apologies for adding to an already long post, but a few people have asked for updates. Here's the latest as of 3/31/25:

All IMLS staff have been placed on leave, which means grants have been suspended. It's not good news, but the call to action is the same: Call your congressperson!

Even if you have already called, you can contact them again since the situation has changed.

More info on what this means, tools for contacting your reps, and further reporting under the cut:

Here's the American Library Association's toolkit for contacting your reps:

Show Up for Our Libraries

Join us and Show Up #ForOurLibraries.

Here's the American Library Association's statement on the situation:

Today, the American Library Association (ALA) issued the following statement upon news that all staff at the Institute of Museum and Library

Key quote:

ALA President Cindy Hohl said, “Within months, if not weeks, local libraries will experience the impact of IMLS grant cancellations. Even now, state libraries are making hard choices about what their communities may have to do without: library loans that give rural residents more choices, or talking books for people with print disabilities, including many seniors? Or do they cut summer reading programs for kids? Discontinue programs for veterans or end services to small businesses?

The New York Times reports that a group of both Democrats and Republicans sent a letter calling on freshly-appointed IMLS acting director Keith Sonderling to continue the agency’s mission.

This is a bipartisan issue so please call your reps regardless of whether they are Democrat or Republican!

(Remember, your LCPL library card gives you free access to NYT if you want to read the article in full - many other libraries do as well. Check with yours if you need a free subscription!)

And here's coverage from NPR on the topic:

Entire staff at federal agency that funds libraries and museums put on leave

The staff of the Institute of Museum and Library Services was placed on administrative leave Monday morning, following a meeting between IML

Thank you to everyone who has called and written in! Your support for libraries and museums matters!

[evenlyevi]

Dandelions

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: Night Angel Holding a Waning Moon Artist: William Morris (English, 1834-1896) Date: between 1857 and 1869 Genre: religious art Period: Victorian Movement: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; Arts and Crafts Movement Medium: watercolor, ink, graphite, and collage on mold-made paper Dimensions: 34 cm (13.4 in) high x 8.6 cm (3.4 in) wide Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

[uwmspeccoll]

Wood Engraving Wednesday

REYNOLDS STONE

This week we present the three wood engravings by the English designer and wood engraver Reynolds Stone (1909–1979) in the Golden Cockerel Press 1936-1943 bibliography, Pertelote, A Sequel to Chanticleer, printed in London by the Press’s co-owners at the time, Christopher Sandford and Owen Rutter.

Reynolds Stone was a much sought after designer and illustrator, working on commissions to the end of his life for both books and commercial work, particularly in lettering design. Much of his design work was for official British institutions, so much so that the designer Hans Schmoller (head of design at Penguin Books) said that "he might almost be described as the 'Engraver Royal'."

All three images shown here are from a group of seven wood engravings for the 1942 Golden Cockerel Press edition of Algernon Charles Swinburne's Lucretia Borgia printed in an edition 350 copies. This was his first commission from Golden Cockerel, and he tried to establish images that evoke cinquecento Italian art. At first, Christopher Stanford was not pleased with the illustrations, as he felt that Lucretia was not voluptuous enough. Nevertheless, Stone had provided strong, finely-engraved work well suited to the story, the period, and the paper on which the blocks were printed, so stay they did.

Our copy of Pertelote is another donation from our late friend Jerry Buff (1931-2025).

View other posts with engravings by Reynolds Stone.

View more posts on Golden Cockerel Press editions.

View more posts with wood engravings!

[meret118]

FBI Sues Trump’s DOJ in Stunning Double Whammy of Lawsuits

The FBI is hitting back after Donald Trump’s January 6 revenge crusade.

Doctors Group Sues Federal Agencies For Scrubbing Online Health Data

Medical professionals use such data regularly to care for patients, but the Trump administration deleted it from government websites.

Families, Doctors Sue Over Trump's Gender-Affirming Care Funding Freeze

"I am heartbroken, tired, and scared," said one mother party to the suit.

Major Public Sector Unions Sue Over Trump's 'Politicization' of Civil Service | Common Dreams

The head of a legal group representing the plaintiffs called the Trump administration's effort to "politicize" nonpartisan federal employees

Unions sue Treasury over DOGE access to payment systems

Anonymous plaintiffs also called for a temporary restraining order Tuesday to prevent OPM from using a newly installed email system to mass-

[biglawbear]

This is why I became a lawyer. Because when shit goes down, lawyers are the first to respond, the vanguard. When someone tries to do something illegal and fucked up, a lawyer will be the first one there to stand in the way.

[castronaut]

This shit is important. I went to a Democratic town council meeting in my neighborhood the other day and the state Attorney General was there as a speaker. He said they are fighting within the bounds of the legal system, SO that means if you have any issue with any of Don or Elon's orders or actions AND you don't mind signing an affidavit that you can prove those actions caused you harm, they have more of a case IF and WHEN you write to your Democratic AG.

Harm can mean a missed paycheck, a forced resignation, a grant rescinded, turned away from medical care, anything provable with documentation and specific to you.

[edward-blake-unknown-knight]

[macrolit]

from ml.books

[chryza]

Me when I see the word beaʃte

In my head: ah! The archaic form of the letter s! Being a casual scholar of linguistics myself I am well aware that though it resembles the letter f in modern typography in fact it is phonetically identical to s! How foolish it would be to stumble into such a simple lexiconical pitfall!

Me aloud to myself every time: beeft

[thistle-and-bee-press]

It is an easy and fun trap when looking at 1600s books.

[se-qo]

you know what they say: boop!