Precious Stones: Their History and Mystery1880
Every famous gem with its legend attached.
We discover, augment and publish old information that is still relevant today. Often it comes from rare, out-of-print books, and even unpublished manuscripts. We make it findable, searchable, and available to all — completely intact, with commentary where appropriate.
Here that means the natural world: bird books and butterfly guides, herbals and gem lore, garden encyclopedias and the beasts of the fossil beds — beautiful plates, coupled with our commentary.
22 books · free to read



In 1909 your April birthstone was a sapphire and August was a sardonyx — the modern list wasn't standardized until 1912.
— A Book of Precious Stones, 1909
The Nature Library's fifteen volumes cover 622 species — and you can keep a spotting checklist against the whole set.
— The Nature Library, 1904
In 1900 the only field guide was this book — its photographers went into the field so you wouldn't have to.
— The Nature Library, 1904
A 1901 book introduced dinosaurs to the general public — thrillingly, and sometimes gloriously wrong.
— Animals of the Past, 1901
1909 jewelers had bench tests for fake gems — a file, a lens, and nerve. The book teaches all of them.
— A Book of Precious Stones, 1909
22 books in this collection, shelved the way a good bookshop would do it. The book's cover is the door; you are invited to walk in anywhere.
The Gem Vault (8 books)·The Jeweler's Bench (1 books)·Birds (2 books)·The Insect World (3 books)·The Lost Worlds (2 books)·The Naturalist's Library (2 books)·Learning Nature (1 books)·Flowers & Trees (3 books)
Famous stones, their curses and their legends.
Every famous gem with its legend attached.
Tiffany's expert on every superstition a stone ever carried.
The Koh-i-Noor and its rivals, theft by theft.
Meteorites, bezoars and amulets from every age.
England's crown jewels, stone by stone.
Every ring with a story, from signets to charms.
The jewelry of the ancients, piece by piece.
Your birth month's stone, and what it promises.
Gems as the trade knows them.
A working jeweler's tour of gems — cut, priced and myth-checked.
Field guides and camera hunts.
Chapman's classic that taught America its birds.
Wild birds stalked with a camera instead of a gun.
Butterflies, bees and everything that hums.
The Comstocks' guide to the butterflies, plates and all.
The honey bee's whole world, from hive to clover.
The insect folk introduce themselves to children.
Dinosaurs and the deep past.
The dinosaurs as 1901 knew, guessed and got them wrong.
The vanished giants, restored by Victorian imagination.
The great multi-volume surveys of the living world.
Doubleday's fifteen-volume guide to the living world.
The animal kingdom in one readable volume.
Nature study for young readers.
The animal alphabet, for the youngest naturalists.
The green world, bloom by bloom.
The field classic that taught botany by color.
Twelve months in the woods, squirrel banking included.
Flowers and the insects that keep them company.