Architectural Global Network

Books about early heritage architecture and lifeways

These books from Edwin Tunis, Eric Sloane and C. Keith Wilbur have supplied most of the line drawings you see throughout this website.  The text that goes with the drawings is fascinating and simple. These books are aimed fully at children and fully at the child in all of us.   It will surely have you saying, “Hey, I always wondered about that…”

If you‘d like to learn more about the content of any of the books, you can click on the title and it will take you to an Amazon page where you may see more detail. You can even purchase the book right from that page. No matter where you go while there, when you close the Amazon window, it will bring you right back here.

Edwin Tunis
      Colonial Craftsmen: And the Beginnings of American Industry
      Shaw's Fortune: The Picture Story of a Colonial Plantation
      The Young United States, 1783-1830
      Frontier Living: An Illustrated Guide to Pioneer Life in America
      Colonial Living
      The Tavern at the Ferry

Eric Sloane
      The ABC Book of Early Americana: A Sketchbook of Antiquities and American Firsts
      The Second Barrel
      The Little Red Schoolhouse: A Sketchbook Of Early American Education
      An Age of Barns: An Illustrated Review of Classic Barn Styles and Construction
      American Barns and Covered Bridges (Americana)
      Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake 1805
      A Reverence for Wood

C. Keith Wilbur
      Homebuilding and Woodworking in Colonial America (Illustrated Living History Series)

Great Reference work full of Interior Drawings and Pictures of every style from the Tudor to the Contemporary Era Shows Period Styles of Doors, Widows, Fireplaces, Lighting, Woodwork…
This book is a must have if you’re trying to distinguish between styles and periods of Architectural Antiques:

Stephen Calloway
      The Elements of Style: A Practical Encyclopedia of Interior Architectural Details

Two Wonderful Books by Russell Versaci about Resurrecting Classical Architecture, often using an antique building as the design core:

Creating a New Old House
Roots of Home: Our Journey to a New Old House

An astounding book about mills: The quality of the photographs, the substantive and highly readable information…

Mill: The History and Future of Naturally Powered Buildings by David Larkin

 

Children’s Books

Get your emerging steward off to a strong start.  These are stories about preservation that will appeal to their common sense, hearts and imagination. 

Our joy and privilege as parents is to expose our children to positive values in transporting literature. As adults, we’re always striving to be the memorable person in our children’s lives who has set the magic key concept before them which ignites a fire of high importance in their hearts. A book that sews the seed of a conceptual journey in a child’s life is really golden.

Relocating an Antique House:       The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
Heartfelt Repurposing:       Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Saving Buildings by Deconstructing:       Barn Savers by Linda Oatman High