#burnsarchive

The four steps in a direct person-to-person blood transfusion performed in the 1900s.

Here's a post just for all of you bibliophiles out there. Today we wanted to share our new Out of Print Books section with you. We've been collecting for a while, and now we have enough to justify a whole section in store and online. Our collection ranges from Edgar Allen Poe and Oscar Wild to Antique medical books, postmortem photo anthologies and foreign texts and art books. This week we thought we'd share our top four favorite books with you. 

Right now we are all pretty obsessed with our selection of books from the Burns archive. The archive is known for  it's unparalleled collection of early medical photography, and also for giving the world insight into the darker aspects of life; death, disease, disasters, deformities, and war. We made sure to have a little bit of everything from this range in our collection.  

Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography by R.B. Bontecou

Salomé by Oscar Wilde c.1945

We are all big fans of Oscar Wilde, so it's a treat to have this little beauty in store. This beautifully bound hard cover edition of Oscar Wilde's Salome was printed in 1945 and is in very good condition. Originally published in French, 'Salomé' is Oscar Wilde's 1896 dramatization of the biblical story of Salome, the step-daughter of Herod who danced before Herod and in so doing wins the granting of any wish that Herod may be able to fulfill. Salome asks for the head of John the Baptist. Fans of Wilde will delight in the dramatization of this biblical story.

I Cari Estinti: The Dearly Departed by Marion Peck (Italian Import)

I Cari Estinti: The Dearly Departed by Marion Peck (Italian Import)

Made in Italy, The Dearly Departed features paintings by Marion Peck that were inspired by portrait photographs of now-dead children and animals from the 19th and early 20th centuries. All of the pictures in this book  are haunting and lovely this book is definitely a little wonder. 

The Bone House by Joel-Peter Witkin

A retrospective look at the work of one of the late twentieth century's most profound and disturbing artists. For this collection Joel-Peter Witkin has personally selected from his own archives his finest images, ranging from his early Coney Island "freak show" studies to his most recent work. Witkin's  work is deeply symbolic, yet is immediately satisfying.The macabre and sublime mix in these images, mostly tableaux on mythical themes and ideas, which  Witkin explains with the observation, "I consider myself a portraitist; not of people, but conditions of being." The 90 plus photos included in this book will take the reader into the darkest corners of their imagination and beyond.

Audra's Favorite:

Sleeping Beauty II Grief, Bereavement and The Family In Memorial Photography: American & European Traditions

 Sleeping Beauty II was created to compliment the exhibition " Le Dernier Portrait" at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, in which, several photographs from the Sleeping Beauty series have been included. This book presents for the first time the important distinctions between American and European postmortem imagery.

Why She loves it: