[“New York, New York. ‘Morgue’ of the New York Times newspaper. Old and new dictionaries.” Photograph by Marjory Collins. September 1942. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Click for larger dictionaries.]
A photograph accompanying a New York Times article about the end of the newspaper’s copy desk led me to more photographs by Marjory Collins.
The top dictionary is a Webster’s Second, open to a page beginning with bird-nest. The illustrations: a king bird of paradise, a bird tick, and a biretta. You can check these details in an extra-large reproduction of the photograph. My 1954 Webster’s Second has the same illustrations in the same locations, on what must be the same page 273, bird-nest to birthmate. Still there! I feel like Holden Caulfield thinking about the Museum of Natural History.
All OCA dictionary posts (Pinboard)
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