Title

This book is called “Voyage Around the World” written by George William Anderson.

Date & Context

This book is a journal-like book about Captain Cook and his voyage around the world which was taken during the year of his first/second/third voyages (1768-1776).

This voyage contributed deeply to past people’s understanding of the world, especially for the lands in the Pacific area.

Who wrote my book?

This book was written by George William Anderson with the help of James Cook.

Publication information

This book was published and printed and published by an organization called Alex Hogg located in London.

Condition

This book is in pretty good condition. As you guys can see, it has a very intact binding which is made of a type of very durable paper.

The inside of this book also looks very new which impressed me.

Appearance

Since there’s nothing on the cover but only on the spine of the book, I suppose this book is placed on a shelf where people will look at its spine first.

This is the “end papers” of the book, made by a technique called “water marbling”, which has several whirlpool-shaped drawings.

Hearing from one of the librarians, I realized that this painting is done through multiple processes that may potentially increase the cost of this book, which shows to me that this book is definitely not meant for reading on a car or anything that is very casual.

 

What attracted me?

• The biggest thing that attracted me is that this book contains many primary information about Captain Cook and his past discoveries, which can help me to understand how people perceived the world in the past. 

• It also has this first page full of texts which gives me more information about the purpose of this book and the publication of this book, which can help understand how book publication worked in the past. 

• These pictures are printed through a technique called “engraving”, which is how people in the past printed fine pictures.
• Not only does these picture provide more direct visualization of the world in the past, but also I will also be interested in studying such techniques more in the future.