Index of Vintage Dinosaur Books
and other vintage books on prehistoric animals
Revised 9/29/09: added descriptions to Ages Ago (1896), Tales of the First Animals (1930), and Ancient Animals (1938).
Revised 9/29/09: added entry for So Long Ago (1946).
Revised 10/2/09: added entry for Discovering Dinosaurs (1960), and On the Trail of Ancient Man (1926).
Revised 10/16/09: added descriptions to So Long Ago (1946), Discovering Dinosaurs (1960), and On the Trail of Ancient Man (1926).
Revised 11/1/09: added entry and description for The Golden Play Book of Animals of the Past Stamps (1954).
Revised 11/12/09: added entries and descriptions for The Mentor: Prehistoric Animal Life (1917); Fossils: An Introduction to Prehistoric Life (1962); Dinosaurs: A Junior Golden Guide (1963); and Parade of the Living, 1930.


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1890's
Extinct Monsters: 1893, by Rev. H. N. Hutchinson; ill. J. Smit and others.
Creatures of Other Days: 1896, by Rev. H. N. Hutchinson; ill. by J. Smit and others.
Ages Ago: 1896, by E. Carrington; illustrated by Harrison Weir and others.

1900's
Animals of the Past: 1900, by Frederic A. Lucas; ill. by Charles R. Knight and James M. Gleeson.
Nebula to Man: 1905, by Henry Knipe; ill. by J. Smit, Alice B. Woodward, Charles Whymper, and others.
Extinct Animals: 1909 (new edition--original edition published in 1905), by E. Ray Lankester; uncredited illustrations.

1910's
Extinct Monsters and Creatures of other Days; 1910; ill. by J. Smit and others.
Evolution in the Past: 1912, by Henry R. Knipe; ill. by Alice B. Woodward and Ernest Bucknall.
Mighty Animals: 1912, by Jenny Irene Mix; ill. by Charles R. Knight, Clement B. Davis, and others.
Mentor: Prehistoric Animal Life, The: 1917, by William Diller Matthew; ill. by Charles R. Knight.
Origin and Evolution of Life: 1918, by Henry Fairfield Osborn; ill. by Richard Deckert, Charles R. Knight, and others.

1920's
World in the Past, The: 1926, by B. Webster Smith; ill. by W. J. Stokoe.
Earth for Sam, The: 1929, by W. Maxwell Reed; ill. by various artists.

1930's
Tales of the First Animals: 1930, by Edith B. Walker; ill. by Jane Banning Bartley.
Parade of the Living: 1930, by John Hodgdon Bradley, Jr.
Dinosaurs, The: 1934; by W,E. Swinton; photos of dinosaur models sculpted by Vernon Edwards.
Sinclair Dinosaur Book, The: 1934, by unknown author, but revision of manuscript by Barnum Brown; ill. by James E. Allen
Before the Dawn of History: 1934, by Charles R. Knight; ill. by author.
Book of Prehistoric Animals, The: 1935, by Raymond L. Ditmars; ill. Helene Carter.
Parade of Ancient Animals, A: 1936, by Harald O. Whitnall; ill. by H. C. Millard.
Life Long Ago: 1937, by Carroll Lane Fenton; ill. by James E. Allen and Carroll Lane Fenton.
Animals on the March: 1937, by W. Maxwell Reed and Jannette M. Lucas; ill. by Charles R. Knight, Margaret Flinsch, F. L. Jaques, and others.
Ancient Animals: 1938, by W. W. Robinson; ill. by Irene B. Robinson.
Prehistoric Life: 1939, by Percy E. Raymond; ill. by Edward A. Schmitz, and others.
Das Reich der Tiere: 1939, by Othenio Abel; ill. by Franz Roubal, Othenio Abel, Charles R. Knight, and many others.

1940's
When the World was Young: 1941, by Martha McBride Morrel; ill. by R. E. Falconer
Life Through the Ages: 1942, by Bertha Morris Parker; ill. by Frederick Seyfarth.
Dinosaur Book, The: 1945, by Edwin H. Colbert; ill. by John C. Germann and others.
So Long Ago: 1946, by E. Boyd Smith; ill. by author.
Strange Prehistoric Animals and their Stories: 1948, by A. Hyatt Verrill; ill. by author.

1950's
Animals of Yesterday: 1952 (first edition 1941), by Bertha Morris Parker; ill. by Frederick Seyfarth.
All About Dinosaurs: 1953, by Roy Chapman Andrews; ill. by Thomas W. Voter.
Golden Play Book of Animals of the Past Stamps, The: 1954, by Rose Wyler and Gerald Ames
; ill. by Matthew Kalmenoff and Robert Gartland.
First Book of Prehistoric Animals, The: 1954, by Alice Dickenson; ill. by Helene Carter.
Dinosaurs: 1954, by Herbert S. Zim; ill. by James Gordon Irving.
Prehistoric World: 1954, by Carroll Lane Fenton; ill. by James E. Allen and Carroll Lane Fenton.
Dinosaurs: 1955, by Marie Halun Bloch; ill. by George F. Mason.
Prehistoric Animals: 1956, by Jane Werner Watson; ill. by Rudolph F. Zallinger and James Lewicki.
Prehistoric Animals: 1956; ill. by Zdenek Burian (this page also includes images and descriptions from other books that contain Burian's paleoart).
Prehistoric Animals: 1956, by William E. Scheele; ill. by author.
Child's Book of Prehistoric Animals, A: 1956, Bruno Frost.
Real Book about Prehistoric Life, The: 1957, By Dorothy Shuttlesworth; Illustrated by Matthew Kalmenoff
Age of Reptiles, The: 1958, by Dorothy Shuttlesworth; ill. by Matthew Kalmenoff
In the Days of the Dinosaurs: 1959, by Roy Chapman Andrews; ill. by Jean Zallinger

1960's
Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Reptiles: 1960, by Jane Werner Watson; ill. by Rudolph F. Zallinger.
Discovering Dinosaurs: 1960, by Glenn O. Blough; ill. by Gustav Schrotter.
Digging for Dinosaurs: 1960 and 1967 (revised edition), by Edwin H. Colbert and William A. Burns; ill. by various artists.
Earth for Sam, The: 1960 (revised edition), by W. Maxwell Reed; ill. by various artists.
How and Why Wonder Book of Dinosaurs, The: 1960, by Darlene Geis; ill. by Kenyon Shannon.
Dinosaurs: Their Discovery and Their World: 1961, by Edwin H. Colbert; ill. by various artists.
Prehistoric Life on Earth: 1961, by Kai Petersen (edited, adapted, and supplemented by Georg Zappler); ill. by Verner Hancke.
Fossils: An Introduction to Prehistoric Life: 1962, by William H. Matthews; ill by various artisits.
Dinosaurs (Saalfield Science Series): 1962, by John J. Stephens III; ill. by Bette Davis.
Fossils: A Guide to Prehistoric Life: 1962, by F. H. T. Rhodes, H. S. Zim, and P. R. Shaffer; ill. by Raymond Perlman.
Dinosaurs: 1963, by Nicholas Hotton III; ill. by various artists and photographs of models.
Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, The: 1963, by Anthony Ravielli; ill. by author.
Dinosaurs: A Junior Golden Guide: 1963 (first edition, 1960), by Brenda Biram; ill. by Rudolf F. Zallinger.
Strange World of Dinosaurs, The: 1964, by John H. Ostrom; ill. by Joseph Sibal.
Exciting World of Dinosaurs, The: 1964, by unknown author; ill. by Matthew Kalmenoff.
Age of Reptiles, The: 1965, by Edwin H. Colbert; ill. by Margaret Matthew Colbert.
Animals of Long Ago: 1965, by Raymond Jones; ill. by Hamilton Greene.
Dinosaurs and More Dinosaurs: 1965, by M. Jean Craig; ill. by George Solonevich.
Wonders of Prehistoric Life, The: 1966, by Donald Barr, Darlene Geis, and Martin Keen; ill. by various artists.
Dinosaurs: 1967 (first edition, 1962), by  W. E. Swinton; ill. by Neave Parker.
Age of Dinosaurs, The: 1968, by Bjorn Kurten; uncredited illustrations.
Day of the Dinosaur, The: 1968, by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp; ill. by various artists.

1970's
Prehistoric Animals: 1970, by Barry Cox; uncredited illustrations.
Dinosaurs, The: 1970, by W.E. Swinton; ill. by Neave Parker.
Life Before Man: 1972, by the Editors of Time-Life books; ill. various artists.


Other old books with vintage dinosaur illustrations.

On the Trail of Ancient Man: 1926, by Roy Chapman Andrews; one illustration by E. Rungius Fulda.


Other more recent books that explore vintage dinosaur books or artwork, or that contain vintage illustrations of dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Scrapbook, The: 1980, by Donald F. Glut.
Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Cavemen: The Art of Charles R. Knight: 1982, by Sylvia Massey Czerkas and Donald F. Glut.
Dinosaurs: an Illustrated History: 1983, Edwin H. Colbert.
Paleoimagery: The Evolution of Dinosaurs in Art: 2002, by Allen A. Debus and Diane E. Debus.
History of Paleontology Illustration, A: 2008, by Jane P. Davidson.


Other illustrations


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