Workwoman's Guide Online - and other online books

[Anna Allen]

Last night I happened upon a link to The Workwoman's Guide that you can download online. I'm not sure if this already has been posted before, but if not you totally have to check this out. I've already found a ton of great period books that you can download for free and I imagine I will be spending many more hours on there. Here's the direct link to The Workwoman's Guide and you can search for more books at http://books.google.com

Also, you can type in a search within the actual book, which makes researching a particular subject a lot easier! I'm not sure how new this is or if it's been out for a long time, but I'm really glad I found this!

[NoahBriggs]

It is SO fun to "own" almost $5,000 worth of original medical manuals and other books for FREE!! (My favorite four-letter F-word. )

[ElizabethClark]

Thanks for the link, Anna! Very nifty resource, and well worth the searching time!

[Delia Godric]

Google books seems to add books rather regularly. Some titles folks here might find interesting..... (some I've abreviated in my file names)
Health Husbandry and Handicraft
The Sampler: A System of Teaching Plain Needlework in Schools
The Boys Own Toymaker
The Girls Own Toymaker
The Girls Own Book
Etiquette for all
Etiquette, Social Ethics and the Courtesies of Society
Hints on Etiquette....
The Hand Book of Etiquette
The Lady's Companion
The Laws of Etiquette...
How to Do It (covers needlework to carving to water cure)
Forty years of American Life (3 versions)

There are many books related to or discussing social movements as well. Let me know if anyone wants titles.

Anna Worden

[Anna Allen]

Awesome! Thanks for the titles, Anna! I feel like such a doofus for not finding out about google books before now. It is such a wonderful resource!

[Delia Godric]

You are welcome. It took me a while before I found it off of the digital book index. While on Google, if you haven't seen it yet, give the patent search a try. There are lots of scan to text typos to work around still. But, it can be useful. When looking at patents now, I usually start there to get an idea of what classifications I should be looking for on the actual patent site.

Anna Worden

[VMurphy]

Hey Anna...I tried to search EVERY LADY HER OWN SHOEMAKER and found that Amazon Dry Goods must have a copy right on that. they aren't posing it. But one source that came up was an article in `1889 Godey with that title

I was really hopeing that the book would be listed...fiddlesticks

Thanks for the source..it's fun to search.One could spend hours and hours and hours ..ooooh can't do

Regards
Vivian Murphy

[celtfiddler]

Miss Anna and Miss Delia--

Thank you for the information on the titles available from Google books. I've found a number of invaluable references for other topics there. Unfortunately, with moving I have not had the opportunity to search for the titles both of you had mentioned.

[tmdreb]

Some of these works are short books and periodicals. How difficult would it be to print them out and use them at events? Would this be practical?

[Mrs. Buttrick]

Our Society has spent four years reseaching copyright ownership of a book that is crucial to our mission to preserve the National Soldiers Home Historic District in Milwaukee. We are very close to being able to say we have done due diligence and have begun typesetting. I make a habit of checking Google Books to see if our book has been added to their digital library or, as I've noticed with some of the more popular offerings, been snatched up and copyrighted by Amazon or another publisher.

For the sake of my copyright sensibilities, I quote the following stipulations on the use of Google Book files. The user must:

Make non-commercial use of the files
We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes.

Maintain attribution
The Google “watermark” you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

Keep it legal
Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal … Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.

I am accutely aware of that final sentence. Our Society is pursuing Directors and Officers insurance as a safeguard of our meager financial resources.


Another little gem which many of you may already treasure, I'm sure:

When searching Google books for Fanny Burling Buttrick and Leroy Female Seminary, I discovered Village Life in Americam 1852-1872 including the Period of the American Civil War as Told in the Diary of A School-Girl. I read some pages, downloaded a copy and then bought the book. It was used as a school text for many years. Hence, used copies are abundant.

Delia, I am beginning to plot my research trip to the Leroy Female Seminary Archives in Caledonia! Without your help, I never would have guessed that they are housed in the Jell-O Museum! I'll be in touch.