An anonymous homeschooling mom has put a great deal of effort into bringing back into print a book beloved by homeschoolers for nearly a century. V.M. Hillyer wrote a number of children's texts in a wonderfully simple and direct style, and which are still used by many American families. These in particular volumes are out of copyright and were out of print and very hard to find, and thus very costly if and when used copies are listed on Amazon or eBay. So some nice lady decided to pull the text off an open library website and remaster all the photos using open domain images. I can imagine it was a lot of work.

These books are US- and Euro-centric, pro-Christian and entirely focused on the much deconstructed and currently-reviled idea of Western Civilization. The contents are almost timeless, spanning as they do from the ancient cave paintings of Europe into early modern architecture, expressionist painting, and civic sculpture into the early 20th century. Contemporary art is totally absent, which is in some ways fortunate. These volumes provide a framework for understanding the great span of human history as well as high quality images of some of our most beautiful works of art.

The book comprises three volumes, Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. They are available individually as well as in a single volume. The prices reflect the premium paper and hard cover format, with full color illustrations on nearly every page. These books are intended to serve large families of homeschoolers and to be passed on again and again to other families or new generations.

Three books in a single volume:

Painting:

Sculpture:

Architecture: