Today we don’t think about books much—you know, those hold-in-your-hand objects we used to study in grade school.
Before information came to us through computers, printed books were the key to knowledge. People wanted books in their homes; they filled their home libraries with books worth reading and that mattered to them. People wanted beautiful books in their libraries, and book publishers responded. Publishers bound books in gilded fabric. They commissioned the most skilled artists to illustrate the stories. The most beautifully illustrated books were published during what is known as the “Golden Age of Illustration” (circa 1880–1917).
