Book with beautiful illustrations that use white lead in the pigment.

Medieval text with mercury in the pigment.

Thai book that is beautiful but entirely poisonous from start to finish.

Yes, I did arrange my trip to Malice Domestic so I could see the If Books Could Kill at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Beautiful but Deadly! #books #poison #poisonbooks #baltimore #waltersartmuseum #musuem

Photograph showing the front cover of Moore's Irish Melodies (1866), which is a vivid green with golden decoration of a small harp in the centre, enclosed by four interlocking hearts featuring the book's title, and surrounded by swirling leaves and flowers.

Photograph of an hand inside a blue nitrile glove holding the book entitled Moore's Irish Melodies which is inserted into an archival-quality zip lock bag. A handwritten note on the front reads: 'WARNING! This bookbinding contains arsenic & lead. Only handle with nitrile gloves.'

☠️| Did you know that books can be dangerous?
We discovered a poisonous book today!

During the 19th century, heavy metals such as arsenic and lead were sometimes added to book bindings to create the vivid green colours like in this copy of Moore's Irish Melodies (ECC E346).

#PoisonBooks #booksky

illustration of anatomy

Illustration of a crossection of a brain

Is dropping out of art to go into medicine a thing? I spent the morning at the medical center library and I may have taken the wrong path. I also think I found my TMJ in a book. Medical illustration pre-computer was the best.

#art #medicalillustration #science #poisonbooks #Library

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 (𝘖𝘳 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴), 1881, 𝖻𝗒 𝖫𝖺𝗎𝗋𝖺 𝖢. 𝖧𝗈𝗅𝗅𝗈𝗐𝖺𝗒. 𝔹𝕣𝕒𝕕𝕝𝕖𝕪 & ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕒𝕟𝕪 - Philadelphia. ℝ.ℍ. ℂ𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕒𝕟 & ℂ𝕠., - New York⁣⁣
⁣⁣
#Booksky #Antiquarian #VictorianSky #Bookish #Booktok⁣ #PoisonBooks (Maybe...?)⁣(This particular edition was printed in Philadelphia)

#PoisonBooks 📚

sites.udel.edu/poisonbookpr...