From Mocca, 1932.  If you've never seen a fairy, perhaps you should consider How to Believe in Your Elf.

"The sham butterfly trick, by the greatest (word) juggler in the universe."  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1884.

"A slight hitch during the dance owing to some of the butterflies becoming entangled."  From The Sketch, 1904.

Here's a precursor to the "selfie" phenomenon.  "Butterfly wings photograph selves."  From Popular Mechanics, 1930.

Here's one of the few headlines in Popular Mechanics that we've actually believed.  "Artists in butterfly wings do their work backward."  From 1929.

From Lello Universal.

Here's Saint Valentine, from Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1879.

You've heard that an airplane is "alive and in dialogue with the aviator" (Denice Turner, Writing the Heavenly Frontier, 2011).  Well, here's textbook "proof that the airplane is alive, well and an important part of the national transportation system" (Richard L. Collins, Flying Magazine, 1974).  Our illustration is from Biology and Man by Benjamin Gruenberg, 1944.

Fairies rescue one of their own from the mouth of a shoe being advertised.  (?)  Circa 1890.

You've heard that animals and insects possess neither morality nor religion, yet here's The Butterfly's Gospel (Fredrika Bremer, 1865).

From c. 1890.

Here's a precursor to David Lynch's "Ricky Board" art piece in which rows of nearly identical objects are given different names.  From Yankee Enchantments by Charles Battell Loomis and illustrated by F. Y. Cory, 1900.  Here's the Ricky Board we made with asterisks in honor of the celebrated poet and novelist Gary Barwin.

From "I'd Be a Butterfly," The Illuminated Magazine, 1843.

There was a time when ocean froth suggested purity and health.