Frank Carlson Library

5th January 1800. At the beginning of a new century, Alma Whittaker is born into a perfect Philadelphia winter. Her father, Henry Whittaker, is a bold and charismatic botanical explorer whose vast fortune belies his lowly beginnings as a vagrant in Kew Gardens. Alma's mother, a strict woman from an esteemed Dutch family, is conversant in five living languages (and two dead ones) and her knowledge of botany is equal to any man's. An independent girl...

Life and art of tormented painter, etcher, and lithographer--pioneer in expressionistic art. Essays on Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Leaving New York City behind for the summer to pursue her passion for painting in Edilean's tightly knit artistic community, Jecca Layton is swept off her feet by the town's handsome doctor and they both must make a difficult decision when the summer ends.

Annie Marlow has been through the worst. Rocked by tragedy, she heads to the one place that makes her happy: Oceanside in the Pacific Northwest, the destination of many family vacations when Annie was a teenager. Once there, Annie begins to restore her broken spirit, thanks in part to the folks she meets: a local painter, Keaton, whose large frame is equal to his big heart, and who helps Annie fix up her rental cottage by the sea; Mellie, the reclusive,...

Vincent van Gogh₆one of the 19th century's most brilliant artists will forever be remembered as the Dutchman who cut off his ear. But this incident only underscores the passion that consumed him a passion that, when he took up painting at age 27, infused his work. Whether painting a portrait, a landscape, or a still life, Van Gogh sought to capture the vibrant spirit of his subject. It didn't matter that others found his work too unconventional....

As World War I raged across the globe, hundreds of young women toiled away at the radium-dial factories, where they painted clock faces with a mysterious new substance called radium. Assured by their bosses that the luminous material was safe, the women themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered from head to toe with the glowing dust. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" were considered the luckiest alive--until they began to fall mysteriously...