Results by title

322 books match the query 'Regional' and 29 start with b

cover of BLACK SWAMP FARM

BLACK SWAMP FARM

Howard E. Good

The Ohio State University Press, 1997

Howard E. Good was born on a farm in an area of the Maumee Valley in northwestern Ohio known as the Black Swamp, a remnant of the violence of the Ice Age and its glaciers, from which farmland had to be wrested by long and arduous labor and where only the stouthearted had any hope of success. In Black Swamp Farm, a stirring memoir of his early days, Good recounts a now vanished way of life.

Good remembers playing shinny with clamp-on skates and a tin can that had been stomped until it could whiz across the ice given just the right combination of speed and accuracy. He tells of the boom of the steam engine as it pulled the threshing machine to a neighboring farm on a hot summer day, and of the excitement of riding high on a wagonload of hay, gazing down on the horses’ broad, shining backs. He describes the springtime task of making soap, the ritual of the shivaree, and the pleasure of the church ice-cream social. He remembers well—and chronicles for the reader—the unproclaimed achievements of men and women whose courage and grueling toil brought them rich rewards.

First published in 1967, this reprint makes available once again a faithful portrayal of Black Swamp—a place that no longer exists—and provides a treasure trove of history for Ohioans.
 
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cover of BLUE HIGHWAYS Revisited

BLUE HIGHWAYS Revisited

Edgar I. Ailor III, Photography by Edgar I. Ailor III and Edgar I. Ailor IV, Foreword by William Least Heat-Moon

University of Missouri Press, 2012

In 1978, William Least Heat-Moon made a 14,000-mile journey on the back roads of America, visiting 38 states along the way. In 1982, the popular Blue Highways, which chronicled his adventures, was published. Three decades later, Edgar Ailor III and his son, Edgar IV, retraced and photographed Heat-Moon’s route, culminating in Blue Highways Revisited, released for publication on the thirtieth anniversary of Blue Highways. A foreword by Heat-Moon notes, "The photographs, often with amazing accuracy, capture my verbal images and the spirit of the book. Taking the journey again through these pictures, I have been intrigued and even somewhat reassured that America is changing not quite so fast as we often believe. The photographs, happily, reveal a recognizable continuity – but for how much longer who can say – and I'm glad the Ailors have recorded so many places and people from Blue Highways while they are yet with us."

Through illustrative photography and text, Ailor and his son capture once more the local color and beauty of the back roads, cafes, taverns, and people of Heat-Moon’s original trek. Almost every photograph in Blue Highways Revisited is referenced to a page in the original work. With side-by-side photographic comparisons of eleven of Heat-Moon’s characters, this new volume reflects upon and develops the memoir of Heat-Moon’s cross-country study of American culture and spirit. Photographs of Heat-Moon’s logbook entries, original manuscript pages, Olympia typewriter, Ford van, and other artifacts also give readers insight into Heat-Moon’s approach to his trip. Discussions with Heat-Moon about these archival images provide the reader insight into the travels and the writing of Blue Highways that only the perspective of the author could provide.

Blue Highways Revisited reaffirms that the "blue highway" serves as a romantic symbol of the free and restless American spirit, as the Ailors lose themselves to the open road as Heat-Moon did thirty years previously. This book reminds readers of the insatiable attraction of the “blue highway”—“But in those brevities just before dawn and a little after dusk—times neither day or night—the old roads return to the sky some of its color. Then, in truth, they carry a mysterious cast of blue, and it's that time when the pull of the blue highway is strongest, when the open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself” (Introduction to Blue Highways).
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cover of Bacula of North American Mammals

Bacula of North American Mammals

William Henry Burt

University of Michigan Press, 1960

In Bacula of North American Mammals, originally published by the Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan, William Henry Burt describes the bacula of various North American mammals. Before this work, there was little material and few articles on the bacula of mammals. With the help of university staff and graduate students, Burt was able to preserve these bones and accumulate a large collection between 1930 and 1960. Although this collection incorporated a vast array of mammals, bats and cats were excluded due to their status as insectivores. The results of Burt’s study are organized by species, and include the generas Procyon, Nasua, Potos, Bassariscus, and Jentinkia.
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cover of Baltimore Portraits

Baltimore Portraits

Amos Badertscher

Duke University Press, 1999

Baltimore Portraits is a unique presentation of photographs by Amos Badertscher. These portraits—many accompanied by poignantly revealing, hand-written narratives about their subjects—represent a sector of Baltimore that has gone largely unnoticed and rarely has been documented. In this volume, the assemblage of images of bar and street people—transvestites, strippers, drug addicts, drag queens, and hustlers—spans a twenty-year period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. Badertscher’s arresting and melancholy photographs document a culture that has virtually disappeared due to substance abuse, AIDS, and, often, societal or family neglect.

The photographer’s focus on content rather than on elaborate technique reveals the intensely personal—and, indeed, autobiographical—nature of his portraits. Their simplicity along with the text’s intimacy affects the viewer in ways not easily forgotten. An introduction by Tyler Curtain contextualizes the photographs both within the history of Baltimore and its queer subculture and in relationship to contemporaneous work by photographers Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, Duane Michaels, and others. Curtain also positions the underlying concerns of Bardertscher’s art in relation to gay and lesbian cultural politics.

This striking collection of portraits, along with the photographer’s moving text, will impact not only a general audience of photographers and enthusiasts of the art but also those engaged with gay and lesbian studies, queer theory, and cultural studies in general. It is published in association with the Duke University Museum of Art.
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cover of Barbecue Crossroads: Notes and Recipes from a Southern Odyssey

Barbecue Crossroads

Notes and Recipes from a Southern Odyssey

By Robb Walsh

University of Texas Press, 2013

In stories, recipes, and photographs, James Beard Award–winning writer Robb Walsh and acclaimed documentary photographer O. Rufus Lovett take us on a barbecue odyssey from East Texas to the Carolinas and back. In Barbecue Crossroads, we meet the pitmasters who still use old-fashioned wood-fired pits, and we sample some of their succulent pork shoulders, whole hogs, savory beef, sausage, mutton, and even some barbecued baloney. Recipes for these and the side dishes, sauces, and desserts that come with them are painstakingly recorded and tested.

But Barbecue Crossroads is more than a cookbook; it is a trip back to the roots of our oldest artisan food tradition and a look at how Southern culture is changing. Walsh and Lovett trace the lineage of Southern barbecue backwards through time as they travel across a part of the country where slow-cooked meat has long been part of everyday life. What they find is not one story, but many. They visit legendary joints that don’t live up to their reputations—and discover unknown places that deserve more attention. They tell us why the corporatizing of agriculture is making it difficult for pitmasters to afford hickory wood or find whole hogs that fit on a pit.

Walsh and Lovett also remind us of myriad ways that race weaves in and out of the barbecue story, from African American cooking techniques and recipes to the tastes of migrant farmworkers who ate their barbecue in meat markets, gas stations, and convenience stores because they weren’t welcome in restaurants. The authors also expose the ways that barbecue competitions and TV shows are undermining traditional barbecue culture. And they predict that the revival of the community barbecue tradition may well be its salvation.

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cover of Basking with Humpbacks: Tracking Threatened Marine Life in New England Waters

Basking with Humpbacks

Tracking Threatened Marine Life in New England Waters

Todd McLeish

University Press of New England, 2016

Basking with Humpbacks offers an exciting, close-up look at some of the most rare marine creatures living in New England waters and examines the complex threats they face. In eleven chapters, each featuring a different animal or plant, McLeish takes readers on an entertaining journey with scientists who study these species. The author follows basking sharks—the second largest fish in the sea—in their hunt for food, helps harbor porpoises escape from fishing nets, snorkels in search of wild bay scallops, and learns how the blood of horseshoe crabs is used in medical research. Along the way he visits the islands where rare seabirds nest, tracks humpback whales on their long migration to the Gulf of Maine, and watches as stranded leatherback turtles are returned to the ocean. These first-person experiences are coupled with interviews with biologists and other experts who explain in their own words the important role these creatures play in the marine ecosystem and what steps must be taken to protect them. In examining the natural history of selected plants and animals, McLeish also discusses the physics of waves and currents, the geology of the seabed, the chemistry of sea water, and other natural factors that influence the survival of New England marine life.
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cover of Bats of the Rocky Mountain West: Natural History, Ecology, and Conservation

Bats of the Rocky Mountain West

Natural History, Ecology, and Conservation

Rick A. Adams

University Press of Colorado, 2025

In this fascinating biology of and guidebook to the bat species inhabiting the Rocky Mountain West, author Rick A. Adams exposes the true nature of bats and the roles these fascinating animals play in the natural history and ecology of the region.
 
In the twenty years since the original publication of Bats of the Rocky Mountain West, chiropterology (bat science) has exploded, significantly altering our understanding of the ecology, behavior, distribution, and conservation of one of the world's most enigmatic mammals. This notably updated second edition further brings to life the wonderful world of bats with beautiful illustrations and photography that grip the imagination and reveal the magnificent natural history of the only true flying mammal. In addition, thirty-two accounts of regional species with photographs, range maps, and echolocation sonograms report informative and thoroughly revised findings on bats now living in the Rocky Mountain West. Leave any preconceived notions behind and learn the real-life biology of bats, which eclipses the fabled tales of the crypt and macabre.
 
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cover of Beaches, Bays, and Barrens: A Natural History of the Jersey Shore

Beaches, Bays, and Barrens

A Natural History of the Jersey Shore

Eric G. Bolen

Rutgers University Press, 2024

The Jersey Shore attracts millions of visitors each year, drawn to its sandy beaches. Yet New Jersey’s coastline contains a richer array of biodiverse habitats than most tourists realize, from seagrass meadows to salt marshes to cranberry bogs. 
 
Beaches, Bays, and Barrens introduces readers to the natural wonders of the Jersey Shore, revealing its unique ecology and fascinating history. The journey begins with the contributions and discoveries of early naturalists who visited the region and an overview of endangered species and natural history, followed by chapters that explore different facets of the shore’s environments. These start with sandy beaches and dunes and culminate in the engaging Pine Barrens, the vital watershed for much of the state’s varied coastline. Along the way, readers will also learn about whaling, decoy carvers, an extinct duck, and the cultivation of wild blueberries.
Including over seventy color photographs, the book also features twenty-three infoboxes that go deep into areas of ecological or historical interest, such as the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge or the Jaws-like shark attacks of 1916. From Cape May to Sandy Hook, biologist Eric G. Bolen takes you on a guided tour of the Jersey Shore’s rich ecological heritage.  
 
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cover of Bears Ears: Landscape of Refuge and Resistance

Bears Ears

Landscape of Refuge and Resistance

Andrew Gulliford

University of Utah Press, 2022

Designated in 2016 by President Obama and reduced to 85 percent of its original size one year later by President Trump, Bears Ears National Monument continues to be a flash point of conflict among ranchers, miners, environmental groups, states’ rights advocates, and Native American activists. In this volume, Andrew Gulliford synthesizes 11,000 years of the region’s history to illuminate what’s truly at stake in this conflict and distills this geography as a place of refuge and resistance.
 
Gulliford’s engaging narrative explains prehistoric Pueblo villages and cliff dwellings, Navajo and Ute history, stories of Mormon families who arrived by wagon train in 1880, impacts of the Atomic Age, uranium mining, and the pothunting and looting of Native graves that inspired the passage of the Antiquities Act over a century ago. The book describes how the national monument came about and its deep significance to five native tribes.
 
Bears Ears National Monument is a bellwether for public land issues in the American West. Its recognition will be relevant for years to come.
 
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cover of Beautiful at All Seasons: Southern Gardening and Beyond with Elizabeth Lawrence

Beautiful at All Seasons

Southern Gardening and Beyond with Elizabeth Lawrence

Elizabeth Lawrence

Duke University Press, 2007

Elizabeth Lawrence (1904–85) is recognized as one of America’s most important gardeners and garden writers. In 1957, Lawrence began a weekly column for the Charlotte Observer, blending gardening lore and horticultural expertise gained from her own gardens in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina, and from her many gardener friends. This book presents 132 of her beloved columns. Never before published in book form, they were chosen from the more than 700 pieces that she wrote for the Observer over fourteen years.

Lawrence exchanged plants and gardening tips with everyone from southern “farm ladies” trading bulbs in garden bulletins to prominent regional gardeners. She corresponded with nursery owners, everyday backyard gardeners, and literary luminaries such as Katharine White and Eudora Welty. Her books, including A Southern Garden, The Little Bulbs, and Gardens in Winter, inspired several generations of gardeners in the South and beyond.

The columns in this volume cover specific plants, such as sweet peas, hellebores, peonies, and the bamboo growing outside her living-room window, as well as broader topics including the usefulness of vines, the importance of daily pruning, and organic gardening. Like all of Lawrence’s writing, these columns are peppered with references to conversations with neighbors and quotations from poetry, mythology, and correspondence. They brim with knowledge gained from a lifetime of experimenting in her gardens, from her visits to other gardens, and from her extensive reading.

Lawrence once wrote, “Dirty fingernails are not the only requirement for growing plants. One must be as willing to study as to dig, for a knowledge of plants is acquired as much from books as from experience.” As inspiring today as when they first appeared in the Charlotte Observer, the columns collected in Beautiful at All Seasons showcase not only Lawrence’s vast knowledge but also her intimate, conversational writing style and her lifelong celebration of gardens and gardening.

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cover of Best of Companions: Henry Ford and the Protection of Birdlife in America

Best of Companions

Henry Ford and the Protection of Birdlife in America

Rick Simek

University of Michigan Press, 2027

Immediately following the success of the Model T, Henry Ford turned to how he could apply his newfound wealth toward protecting birdlife on his new rural acreage in Dearborn, Michigan. Best of Companions weaves Henry Ford’s personal and very public participation in bird protection into the overall national push to save disappearing North American birdlife in the early twentieth century. 

Acting on his love of birds, Ford formed acquaintances and friendships with some of the most prominent North American wildlife conservation activists of the time. Michigan Audubon Society President Jefferson Butler was recruited to plan, establish, and promote an expansive, visionary bird protection project known as Henry Ford’s Bird Farm. Highlighting the economic benefit of birds, the farm modeled how farmers could use both natural and artificial means to boost populations of native insectivorous bird species on their land, reducing crop damage from insects and increasing agricultural productivity. Best of Companions takes readers on an exciting journey through Ford’s ambitious efforts to secure passage of the first federal bird protection law in the United States, to support the Migratory Bird Treaty with Canada, and to improve the lives of farmers.

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cover of Beyond the Trees: Stories of Wisconsin Forests

Beyond the Trees

Stories of Wisconsin Forests

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2011

Nature writer Candice Andrews weaves together contemporary observations and historical reminisces in Beyond the Trees: Stories of Wisconsin Forests. Readers will journey to some of the most pristine and notable places in the Upper Midwest—Wisconsin’s state and national forests.

The diversity of landscapes evoked in Beyond the Trees is matched only by the characters who inhabit them. Traverse the footsteps of Ojibwe hunters and early explorers in the remote woods of Brule River State Forest. Trek past the remains of bygone logging and CCC camps in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Glimpse into the world of Great Lakes shipping in Point Beach State Forest. Walk on trails named after John Muir and Increase Lapham in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, and experience urban green space at Milwaukee’s Havenwoods State Forest. From orchids to oak savanna, beaver to brook trout, and white-tailed deer to timber wolves, discover Wisconsin’s wildlife and flora and fauna. Archival images, informative sidebars, locator maps, and contact information for Wisconsin state and national forests round out this unique book.

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cover of Biogeography of Reptiles and Amphibians in the Gomez Farias Region, Tamaulipas, Mexico

Biogeography of Reptiles and Amphibians in the Gomez Farias Region, Tamaulipas, Mexico

Paul S. Martin

University of Michigan Press, 1958

This study analyzes the ecological distributions of reptiles and amphibians in southern Tamaulipas of northeastern Mexico. Observations are confined to a small, though topographically complex, section of the Sierra Madre Oriental to enable a more careful definition of zonal distribution than would be possible had the same amount of fieldwork been expended in a larger geographical unit. Geology, climate, and vegetation are environmental features of primary concern to the animal ecologist, and this study discusses each of these in turn. Such information should clarify the environmental basis for certain distribution patterns both throughout eastern Mexico and, locally, in the Gomez Farias region. In addition it should be useful in comparing this with other peritropical areas.
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cover of Birds and Other Wildlife of South Central Texas: A Handbook

Birds and Other Wildlife of South Central Texas

A Handbook

By Edward A. Kutac and S. Christopher Caran

University of Texas Press, 1993

Nature takes a surprising turn in the heart of Texas. The flat Gulf Coastal Plains, which become the fertile Blackland Prairies in Central Texas, end abruptly at the Balcones Escarpment, one of the state’s most dramatic geological features, and the rolling, more sparsely vegetated Hill Country begins. The animal life varies as dramatically as the land. More than 400 species of birds alone, nearly three-fourths of all Texas birds, can be spotted in the region.

This handbook offers a concise natural history of Central Texas and a complete checklist of all native and naturalized vertebrate animals, including birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, as well as invertebrates that include butterflies and land snails. The listings cite both scientific and common names for each species, relative abundance in the region, and preferred habitats.

A distinguishing feature of the handbook is its list of parks and recreational areas in the region, which includes the counties of Bastrop, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Comal, Fayette, Gillespie, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, Lee, Llano, Milam, Travis, and Williamson. The authors describe the recreational facilities available in each park and list the animal species likely to be encountered there.

For birdwatchers, naturalists, visitors, and residents alike, this popular handbook will be the essential "where-to-find-it" reference.

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cover of Birds of Crater Lake National Park: A Natural History and Guide

Birds of Crater Lake National Park

A Natural History and Guide

Stewart Janes

Oregon State University Press, 2026

Crater Lake National Park mesmerizes thousands of visitors each year with its stunning vistas, natural beauty, and wildlife, including the extraordinary birds that are found there. In Birds of Crater Lake National Park, Stewart Janes introduces readers to Oregon’s high-country birds and those that are most frequently encountered on visits to the park. The high country is a hostile environment; the birds that live there confront challenges—elevation, weather, geology, habitat—that their lowland relatives do not have to endure. Species that inhabit the high country must be adaptable and resourceful.

From the Clark’s Nutcracker to the White-crowned Sparrow, the guide provides species accounts of the most characteristic birds found in the park. Accompanied by detailed color photographs, each entry also includes the scientific name, description, and distribution along with a short narrative.

With essays focusing on the history, climate, geology, and geography of the region, this guide offers a strong foundation to greater understanding of the birds of Crater Lake. Plus, chapters like “Birds Beyond Crater Lake National Park” and “Some Places to Bird in Crater Lake National Park,” along with a birding checklist, offer invaluable resources to beginner and skilled birders alike.
 
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cover of Birdscaping for Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region: The 50 Best Native Plants to Attract Birds to Your Midwestern Garden

Birdscaping for Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region

The 50 Best Native Plants to Attract Birds to Your Midwestern Garden

Mariette Nowak

University of Wisconsin Press, 2025

Want to turn your yard into a bird paradise? Mariette Nowak, gardener, educator, and ecologist, has a simple suggestion: think beyond bird feeders. Her indispensable guide for gardeners throughout the Upper Midwest and parts of the Northeast highlights the fifty best native plants for attracting such beloved bird species as Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, American Goldfinches, Eastern Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Cedar Waxwings, and Wood Warblers.

The book explains the value of particular plants for birds and other wildlife, not only as food sources but as nesting sites and cover. Each plant is described in depth, with details on color, height, blooming time, light requirements, and soil preferences, along with planting tips and suggested companion plants. Nowak offers closer looks at the intriguing features of these diverse plant species and their intertwined relationships with birds, complemented by more than 150 color photos that showcase the beauty of the plants and birds together. Novice gardeners will also find essential information on birdscaping basics, site preparation, management guidelines, and safeguarding songbirds.
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cover of Birdscaping in the Midwest: A Guide to Gardening with Native Plants to Attract Birds

Birdscaping in the Midwest

A Guide to Gardening with Native Plants to Attract Birds

Mariette Nowak; Foreword by Peter H. Raven

University of Wisconsin Press, 2012

Go beyond bird feeders! Learn how to create outstanding bird habitats in your own yard with native plants that offer food, cover, and nesting sites for birds. This guide is packed with color photographs, sage advice, detailed instructions, and garden plans. It features nine different habitat gardens for hummingbirds, bluebirds, wintering birds, migrant birds, and birds that frequent prairies, wetlands, lakes, shrublands, and woodlands, along with advice about maintaining your plantings and augmenting them with nest boxes, birdbaths, misters, and perches. The information on recommended plant species includes their native ranges in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin; the birds they attract; their visual characteristics; and their cultivation. Mariette Nowak also describes how gardeners featured in this book have gone beyond their own garden gates to work for the protection and restoration of bird habitat in their neighborhoods and communities. Birdscaping in the Midwest provides many sources of further information, including publications, websites, organizations, and native plant nurseries.
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cover of Birdwatching in Maine: The Complete Site Guide

Birdwatching in Maine

The Complete Site Guide

Derek J. Lovitch

Brandeis University Press, 2024

An invaluable site guide for New England birders, now available in a new updated edition.
 
With over 470 species of birds recorded, Maine offers an abundance of birding opportunities for people of all levels of interest and experience, from those looking beyond their backyards for the first time to knowledgeable visitors looking to plug a hole in their list of sightings. The state’s wealth of undeveloped land and its extensive coastline, countless islands, and varied habitat combine to host an impressive diversity of birds at all times of the year. Birders travel to Maine from near and far to seek hard-to-find species, from the only Atlantic puffins breeding in the United States on offshore islands to Bicknell’s thrushes high in the mountains.
 
This book fills an important niche for the birdwatching community by offering comprehensive entries detailing the best locations for finding birds throughout the state for enthusiasts of all levels of skill and interest. It contains descriptions of 202 birding sites in Maine, with explicit directions on how to get there, for all sixteen of the state’s counties, several as large as other New England states! Each chapter features a county map, a brief overview by Derek J. Lovitch, numerous specific site guides, and a list of rarities. The book also contains a detailed and useful species accounts guide for finding the most sought-after birds.
 
Lavishly illustrated in color throughout, Birdwatching in Maine is the best available resource for finding birds in the largest of the New England states. This updated edition features a new introduction, as well as new birding sites and maps.
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cover of Birdwatching in New Hampshire

Birdwatching in New Hampshire

Eric A. Masterson

University Press of New England, 2013

Designed to appeal to expert and backyard birdwatchers alike, this comprehensive guide reveals where, when, and how to watch and enjoy birds in New Hampshire. It not only offers the latest information about the seasonal status and distribution of birds in New Hampshire but also features a thorough introduction to the art and practice of birdwatching, including equipment, ethics, migration, conservation, and most of all, finding that “good bird.” The heart of the book is the detailed descriptions and maps that outline more than 120 birding sites across the state, from the Connecticut River Valley to Jeffreys Ledge and Cashes Ledge far off the coast. Drawing upon his extensive knowledge of the habits and habitats of New Hampshire birds, the author has divided the state into six regions, each with a rich diversity of birdwatching destinations. The guide also features informative accounts of the more than 300 bird species regularly seen in the Granite State, including their preferred habitats and graphs illustrating when each is most likely to be encountered. In addition, Masterson also provides a useful guide to rare and accidental bird sightings. The essential guide to birdwatching in New Hampshire for beginners and accomplished regional birders.
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cover of Birdwatching in New York City and on Long Island: Second Edition

Birdwatching in New York City and on Long Island

Second Edition

Deborah Rivel and Kellye Rosenheim

Brandeis University Press, 2025

A new, updated edition of a beloved guide helps birders spot and identify the hundreds of species that inhabit America’s largest metropolitan area.
 
Over five hundred species of birds can be seen in New York City’s five boroughs and on Long Island, one of the most densely populated and urbanized regions in North America, which also happens to be situated directly on the Atlantic Flyway. In this fragmented environment where resources are scarce, birds congregate in small spaces—Central Park alone attracts over 225 species of birds (not to mention birders from around the world who flock to the park during spring and fall migration). Beyond Central Park, the five boroughs and Long Island boast numerous wildlife refuges of extraordinary scenic beauty where resident and migratory birds inhabit forests, wetlands, grasslands, and beaches. These places present a unique opportunity to see a wide array of songbirds, endangered nesting shorebirds, raptors, and an unprecedented number and variety of waterfowl.
 
The fully updated edition of this easy-to-use guide provides year-round information for both popular birding sites as well as those off the beaten path. Precise directions to the best viewing locations within the region’s diverse habitats enable birdwatchers to explore urban and wild birding hot spots. Including the latest information on the seasonal status and distribution of more than four hundred species, and featuring thirty-nine maps and over fifty photographs, this full-color guide offers information essential to locals and visitors alike. This is the go-to book for both longtime birders and those exploring the area for the first time.
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cover of Boston's Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them

Boston's Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them

Joseph M. Bagley

Brandeis University Press, 2021

As Boston approaches its four-hundredth anniversary, it is remarkable that it still maintains its historic character despite constant development. The fifty buildings featured in this book all pre-date 1800 and illustrate Boston’s early history. This is the first book to survey Boston’s fifty oldest buildings and does so through an approachable narrative which will appeal to nonarchitects and those new to historic preservation. Beginning with a map of the buildings’ locations and an overview of the historic preservation movement in Boston, the book looks at the fifty buildings in order from oldest to most ­recent. Geographically, the majority of the buildings are located within the downtown area of Boston along the Freedom Trail and within easy walking distance from the core of the city. This makes the book an ideal guide for tourists, and residents of the city will also find it interesting as it includes numerous properties in the surrounding neighborhoods. The buildings span multiple uses from homes to churches and warehouses to restaurants. Each chapter features a building, a narrative focusing on its historical significance, and the efforts made to preserve it over time. Full ­color photos and historical drawings illustrate each building and area. Boston’s Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them presents the ideals of historic preservation in an approachable and easy­-to-­read manner appropriate for the broadest audience. Perfect for history lovers, architectural enthusiasts, and tourists alike. 

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cover of Boston's Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them

Boston's Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them

Joseph M. Bagley

Brandeis University Press, 2025

A lavishly illustrated look at some of Boston’s most historic buildings, now available in a new, updated edition. Winner of the Historic New England Book Prize and a Boston Preservation Alliance Annual Achievement Award.
 
As Boston fast approaches its four-hundredth anniversary, the city’s architecture plays an important role in preserving its historic character. This book introduces readers to the city’s early history through fifty buildings, which all pre-date 1800. Employing an approachable narrative that will appeal to non-architects and those new to historic preservation, Joseph M. Bagley guides readers through an overview of the historic preservation movement in Boston before explaining the historical significance of these structures, which include homes, churches, warehouses, and restaurants.
 
The book begins with a map of the buildings’ locations and organizes entries from the oldest to the most recent. The majority of the properties are located within Boston’s downtown area, along the Freedom Trail, and within easy walking distance from the core of the city. While this makes the book an ideal guide for tourists, Boston residents will also discover buildings in the surrounding neighborhoods. Each chapter features a building, a story about its history, and the efforts made to preserve it over time. Full­color photos and historical drawings illustrate each structure and area.
 
Boston’s Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them presents the ideals of historic preservation in an easy­-to-read manner appropriate for the broadest audience. Perfect for history lovers, architectural enthusiasts, locals, and visitors alike.
 
This new edition features a foreword by Robert Allison, professor of history, language, and global culture at Suffolk University, and includes three new buildings identified by the author as being amongst the oldest in the city, which illustrates the dynamic nature of archaeology.
 
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cover of Boston: Voices and Visions

Boston

Voices and Visions

Shaun O'Connell

University of Massachusetts Press, 2010

“New England was founded consciously, and in no fit of absence of mind,” observed historian Samuel Eliot Morison on the establishment of the Bay Colony in 1630 on the narrow, mountainous Shawmut peninsula of what became Massachusetts. That self-conscious presence of mind has endured for four centuries. Boston has been shaped and sustained by observation, imagination, and interpretation. As a result, the evolving vision of Boston has yielded a compelling literary record.

In this wide-ranging anthology, Shaun O'Connell includes a generous sampling of those who have recorded, revised, and redefined the vision of Boston. Anne Bradstreet, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary Antin, Edwin O'Connor, John Updike, and many others eloquently evoke and explain Boston in these pages. 

From John Winthrop's “city upon a hill” sermon, delivered aboard the Arbella before his followers landed in 1630 in the place they would call Boston, to Robert Lowell's “For the Union Dead,” a poem delivered in Boston's Public Garden in 1960, writers have continued to invoke the high purposes for which the city was founded, sometimes in praise of the city, but often in what Robert Frost named a “lover's quarrel,” in works that called attention to the city's failures to fulfill its promises. In the twenty-first century some writers continue to celebrate or to castigate the city, while others look back to Boston's origins to reassess its founders and renew its covenant of high purpose.

This is an interpretive anthology—one that includes commentary as well as writings. Section introductions provide historical and biographical context, offer analysis that stresses the thematic relevance of each selection, and explore the pattern of their relations. Rather than present a random array of writers who happen to have been Greater Bostonians, O'Connell focuses on those authors who possessed a commitment to the sense of place, those who addressed Boston not only as a geographical, social, and political entity but as an image, idea, and site of symbolic values.

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cover of Boundary Layer: Exploring the Genius Between Worlds

Boundary Layer

Exploring the Genius Between Worlds

Kem Luther

Oregon State University Press, 2016

In atmospheric science, a boundary layer is the band of air nearest the ground. In the Pacific Northwest, the boundary layer teems with lichens, mosses, ferns, fungi, and diminutive plants. It’s an alternate, overlooked universe whose denizens author Kem Luther calls the stegnon, the terrestrial equivalent of oceanic plankton.

In Boundary Layer, Luther takes a voyage of discovery through the stegnon, exploring the life forms that thrive there and introducing readers to the scientists who study them. With a keen ear for conversation and an eye for salient detail, the author brings a host of characters to life, people as unique and intriguing as the species inhabiting the stegnon.

A pair of park employees on a windswept beach shows how the violent clash of sea and land creates a sandy home for some of the world’s most endangered plants, including the almost-extinct pink sand-verbena. An expert on mosses, as ingenuous as the plants he loves, leads the author up a mountain and into a sphagnum bog.  A husband and wife team, exiled by brutal repression in the wake of the Prague Spring, introduce European plant sociology to North America.  A scientist, while revolutionizing the study of lichens, hides himself, hermitlike, inside one of the largest park reserves in the American West.

An exhilarating mix of natural history, botanical exploration, and philosophical speculation, Boundary Layer guides readers, in the end, into the author’s own landscape of metaphor. It will be welcomed by naturalists, botanists, outdoor adventurers, and anyone who savors good storytelling. Luther translates into luminous prose what boundary regions have to say, not only about the in-between places of nature, but also about the conceptual borderlands that lie between species and ecosystems, culture and nature, science and the humanities.
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cover of Bringing Home the Wild: A Riparian Garden in a Southwest City

Bringing Home the Wild

A Riparian Garden in a Southwest City

Juliet C. Stromberg

University of Arizona Press, 2023

A story of ecologically guided urban gardening

When living in a large sprawling city, one may feel disconnected and adrift. Finding ways to belong and have positive effects is challenging. In Bringing Home the Wild, botanist Juliet C. Stromberg demonstrates how ecologically guided gardening develops a sense of place, restores connections to nature, and brings joy and meaning to our lives.

This book follows a two-decade journey in ecologically guided gardening on a four-acre irrigated parcel in Phoenix, Arizona, from the perspective of a retired botanist and her science historian partner. Through humor and playful use of language, Bringing Home the Wild not only introduces the plants who are feeding them, buffering the climate, and elevating their moods but also acknowledges the animals and fungi who are pollinating the plants and recycling the waste. Some of the plants featured are indigenous to the American Southwest, while others are part of the biocultural heritage of the cityscape. This book makes the case for valuing inclusive biodiversity and for respectful interactions with all wild creatures, regardless of their historical origin.

As author and partner learn to cohabit with the plants who feed them, calm them, entertain them, and protect them from the increasing heat, their desire to live sustainably, ethically, and close to the land becomes even stronger, revealing the importance of observing, appreciating, and learning from the ecosystems of which we are a part.
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cover of Building Ideas: An Architectural Guide to the University of Chicago

Building Ideas

An Architectural Guide to the University of Chicago

Jay Pridmore

University of Chicago Press, 2013

 Many books have been written about the University of Chicago over its 120-year history, but most of them focus on the intellectual environment, favoring its great thinkers and their many breakthroughs. Yet for the students and scholars who live and work here, the physical university—its stately buildings and beautiful grounds—forms an important part of its character.

Building Ideas: An Architectural Guide to the University of Chicago explores the environment that has supported more than a century of exceptional thinkers. This photographic guide traces the evolution of campus architecture from the university’s founding in 1890 to its plans for the twenty-first century.

When William Rainey Harper, the university’s first president, and the trustees decided to build a set of Gothic quadrangles, they created a visual link to European precursors and made a bold statement about the future of higher education in the United States. Since then the university has regularly commissioned forward-thinking architects to design buildings that expand—or explode—traditional ideals while redefining the contemporary campus.

Full of panoramic photographs and exquisite details, Building Ideas features the work of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Ives Cobb, Holabird & Roche, Eero Saarinen, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Netsch, Ricardo Legorreta, Rafael Viñoly, César Pelli, Helmut Jahn, and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. The guide also includes guest commentaries by prominent architects and other notable public figures. It is the perfect collection for Chicago alumni and students, Hyde Park residents and visitors, and anyone inspired by the institutional ideas and aspirations of architecture.
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cover of Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home of Love and Loss

Building Taliesin

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home of Love and Loss

Ron McCrea

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2012

Through letters, memoirs, contemporary documents, and a stunning assemblage of photographs - many of which have never before been published - author Ron McCrea tells the fascinating story of the building of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin, which would be the architect's principal residence for the rest of his life. Photos taken by Wright's associates show rare views of Taliesin under construction and illustrate Wright's own recollections of the first summer there and the craftsmen who worked on the site.
 
The book also brings to life Wright’s "kindred spirit," "she for whom Taliesin had first taken form," Mamah Borthwick. Wright and Borthwick had each abandoned their families to be together, causing a scandal that reverberated far beyond Wright's beloved Wisconsin valley. The shocking murder and fire that took place at Taliesin in August 1914 brought this first phase of life at Taliesin to a tragic end.
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cover of Butterflies of Alabama: Glimpses into Their Lives

Butterflies of Alabama

Glimpses into Their Lives

Paulette H. Ogard, Sara C. Bright

University of Alabama Press, 2010

Capture Every Stage of Alabama’s Butterfly Wonder.

Butterflies of Alabama is a full-color, richly illustrated guide to the 84 known species of “true” butterflies (Papilionoidea) found within the state’s borders. For more than 14 years, the authors have made a close study of these showy, winged stars of the insect world, pursuing them in a great variety of habitats, rearing them, and photographing their remarkable life cycle stages—egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalid or “cocoon”), and adult.

Each species account is accompanied by color photographs of live subjects in their natural habitats. Close-ups reveal fascinating details of camouflage, mimicry, coloration, and warning devices. The engaging text explains the highly evolved relationships between butterflies and the plants upon which they depend as well as the specialized adaptations that enable their survival within specific environmental niches. Included are range maps, flight times, caterpillar host plants, adult nectar sources, and identification tips—abundant information to tantalize budding as well as experienced butterfly watchers. In addition, pertinent conservation issues are addressed and appendices provide an annotated checklist of the state’s butterflies, a list of accidentals and strays, information on butterfly organizations, and recommended further reading.

With its non-technical language, simple format, and beautiful images, Butterflies of Alabama is accessible and appealing to anyone who appreciates Alabama’s amazing natural wealth.


Publication is supported in part by the Citizens of the City of Selma, Alabama's Butterfly Capital.

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cover of Butterflies of Illinois: A Field Guide

Butterflies of Illinois

A Field Guide

Michael R. Jeffords, Susan L. Post, and James R. Wiker

University of Illinois Press, 2019

Prairie spaces and abundant wildflowers make Illinois an amateur lepidopterist's delight. Butterflies of Illinois offers a portable, easy-to-use guide rich with descriptions, field photography, and life-sized specimen photos of all the state's native species. It also includes:
 
  • identification quick guides depicting the tops and undersides of all butterfly species
  • scientific information and photos that explain life cycles, habitats, and ecology
  • range maps
  • flight period charts
  • key characteristics relevant to field identification
  • descriptions of rarely seen butterflies and irregular visitors from nearby states
  • supplemental information on various species, including collection records and unusual sightings 
Geared toward enthusiasts and experts alike, Butterflies of Illinois is a must-have companion for any nature hike or garden walk.
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