From St. Nicholas magazine, 1909.

From the Tatler yearbook of Winthrop University, 1912.  See How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

From the Hawkeye yearbook of the State University of Iowa, 1902.  See How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

From the Lasell Leaves yearbook of Lasell Female Seminary, 1916.  See How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

From Colorado College's Nugget yearbook, 1906.  See How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

"I there wi' something did forgather / That put me in an eerie swither."  From The Poetical Works of Robert Burns, 1871.

From St. Nicholas magazine, 1909.

From Hallowe'en Festivities by Stanley Schell, 1903.

"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives."  From The Life and Literary Works of Michel Angelo Buonarroti by Richard Duppa, 1806.

Here are the imps of the punch bowl, from Mistura Curiosa by James Archibald Sidey, 1886.  This should also be of interest: How to Believe in Your Elf.

Macramé meets the macabre in Wien im Jahre 1683 by Victor von Renner, 1883.  

From the Epitome yearbook of Lehigh University, 1896.  Speaking of which, what exactly are a snowball's chances in hell?  See A Snowball's Chance in Hell and How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook..

A drawing by Dorothy J. Hamilton from St. Nicholas maagzine, 1903.

From Ghosts, Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low by Kate O'Brien Prichard and illustrated by B. E. Minns, 1899.

We celebrate how Webster's dictionary used to be truly practical — back when it covered (counterclockwise from the top left) tritons, phrenology, the zodiac, the Colossus of Rhodes, satyrs, dragons, unicorns, Pan, and Atlas (the Greek god, not the maps).  Here's to Webster's Practical Dictionary, 1906, for covering topics to which we daily devote ourselves.

From Mysteries and Miseries of America's Great Cities, Embracing New York, Washington City, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and New Orleans by James William Buel, 1883.

From The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, 1897.

From St. Nicholas magazine.

We learn here that a majority of no's make a no, but a single no is a star in its own right.  From Journals of Congress, 1777.

If it's true that "New ciphers develop when the existing ones have been broken" (Katelyn Callahan, "The Impact of the Allied Cryptographers on World War II"), then just where does said development take place?  In cypher incubators, or course.  Our graphic is from an entire catalog of incubators for cyphers (1899). 

From The Dragon, Image, and Demon; or, The Three Religions of China: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism by Hampden C. DuBose, 1887.

Here is revealed how turtles migrate for the winter.  From Woodland Romances by Clara L. Matéaux, 1877.

Here's a precursor to Bewitched: The Witch-Wife by Sarah Tytler, 1897.

From St. Nicholas magazine, 1877.

"For now, though, the A's move forward." —Jane Lee

(Our illustration appears in Rush-Bearing by Alfred Burton, 1891.)

From United States Telegraph Extra, 1832.

"The troll gives a light," from The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, 1897.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1904.

From Inleyding Tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst by Samuel van Hoogstraten, 1678.

"When the rope burns close to his toe, he will wake up quickly enough," from St. Nicholas magazine, 1877.

From United States Telegraph Extra, 1832.

"And the only fool is the one who can prove that death is a blank nothing or something less than life." —Helga Sandburg, A Great and Glorious Romance: The Story of Carl Sandburg (1978)

(Our blank page appears in The Family Bible, 1861.)

"I never expected to see two Harriets!"  From Dicks' English Library of Standard Works, 1884.

"The bean-pot comet," from The Argonauts of California by Charles Waldo Haskins, 1890.

From Die Puppenspiele des Grafen by Franz Pocci, 1909.

"There is dark, and there is light": a musical Yin/Yang from Beauty and the Beast: A Humorous Cantata by Edmund Rogers, 1882.  Note how the sharp and double-sharp symbols offer shimmers of light.

From St. Nicholas magazine, 1877.

"The dead drummer" from Dicks' English Library of Standard Works, 1884.

"The wondrous effect of a piper's pipe of tobacco," from Dicks' English Library of Standard Works, 1884.

"Pen hears himself in print," from The Oxford Thackeray.  Indeed, print is not only a visual medium.

From The Land of Ram and Other Tales by H. Rose, 1890.

Here's a precursor to VeggieTales, from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1904.

René Magritte's "The Treachery of Images" reminded us that "Ceci n'est pas une pipe," but c'est la vie:

From The International Studio, June 1915.

"With what grace she pumped," from Dicks' English Library of Standard Works, 1884.

The number of fools is infinite, from Memoires Pour Servir À L'histoire De La Fête Des Foux, Qui Se Faisoit Autrefois Dans Plusieurs Eglises by Jean-Bénigne Lucotte Tilliot, 1751.  (See our previous item about the fool's marotte here.)

"The silver lining."  From The Bashful Earthquake by Oliver Herford (1899).

The Gentleman Who Vanished: A Psychological Phantasy by Fergus Hume, 1890.  Also very much of interest: The Young Wizard's Hexopedia.

"The odious race of the unappreciated," from Miss Misanthrope by Justin MacCarthy and illustrated by Arthur Hopkins, 1878.

"Not pictured, yet his presence is implicit." —Thembisa Waetjen, Workers and Warriors

Here's a portrait of a certain Mr. Gudge by John Leech (some of his subtlest work), from The Struggle and Adventures of Christopher Tadpole by Albert Richard Smith, 1897.

Whistling past the graveyard, hair standing on end.  From St. Nicholas magazine, 1877.

From Stock Designs of Book Division Inserts, 1922.

From The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, 1897.

From The Land of Ram and Other Tales by H. Rose, 1890.

Here's a precursor to the "Superflat" portmodern art movement founded by Takashi Murakami, from Mémoires Historiques sur la Louisiane, 1753.

From Cousin Tom by William Turville, 1897.

"Don't call it a hunch, or a spooky sensation.  Call it reality."
—Simon Spurrier, The New Pulp