Kindle Screensaver images identified…

Post updated with more identifications. Thanks to all the commenters making suggestions.

  1. Kindle definition & tree. Presumably commissioned by Amazon?
    Kindle Definition
  2. I’m guessing that the Finches are probably from Audubon’s The Birds Of America but I can’t find the actual image elsewhere online.
    Finches
  3. Virginia Woolf. From a photograph by George Charles Beresford.
    Virginia Woolf
  4. Jules Verne. I can find similar images online, but not credited to the photographer.
    Jules Verne
  5. First page of John’s Gospel from the Lindisfarne Gospel.
    John's Gospel
  6. Jane Austen. As with Verne, above, I can find similar images online but with no accreditation.
    Jane Austen
  7. Ralph Ellison. Unknown source.
    Ralph Ellison
  8. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Unknown source.
    Harriet Beecher Stowe
  9. Emily Dickinson. Again, I can find similar pictures…
    Emily Dickinson
  10. Opiuchus and Serpens from Atlas Coelestis by John Flamsteed (1646-1716). Presumably the Kindle authors used a colourised version.
    Ophiuchus
  11. Johannes and Elisabetha Hevelius using a sextant to collaborate on astronomical research from The Heavenly Machine by Johannes Hevelius
    Hevelius
  12. Mark Twain. Unknown source.
    Mark Twain
  13. I have absolutely no idea about this one… As pointed out by Paul and Miriam, this is The Samian Sibyl after Guernico.
    Unknown
  14. The Fish look to me like it could be from Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur but like Audubon’s Finches I can’t find the exact image online. Correction: as Sasha points out in the comments, it’s from Le Larousse du XXe siècle.
    Fish
  15. John Steinbeck. Again, I can find similar images but don’t know who they’re by.
    Steinbeck
  16. Erasmus of Rotterdam by Hans Holbein, 1523
    Erasmus
  17. St Jerome in his Study by Albrecht Durer.
    Jerome
  18. Albert of Mainz by Albrecht Durer.
    Albert of Mainz
  19. Charlotte Brontë. Painted by Evert A. Duyckinick, based on a drawing by George Richmond. See wikipedia.
    Charlotte Bronte
  20. Palladio’s plan of Villa La Rotonda, in I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura 1570. See the wikipedia entry for the building.
    Palladio
  21. Agatha Christie. Again, I can find similar, but uncredited, images online.
    Agatha Christie
  22. Alexandre Dumas. Unknown source.
    Dumas
  23. “We’d love to hear your thoughts…” Unknown source. As noted in the comments by Lucy B, and supported by Noel this looks very much like is a Grant Calculating Machine. See here for a very similar image. See this image on wikipedia.
    Feedback

Any help identifying the remaining images will be most gratefully received.

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28 Responses to Kindle Screensaver images identified…

  1. Paul says:

    13: She is Sybilla Persica, prophetic priestess over the Apollonion Order, sometimes known as the Babylonian Sybil.

    (http://askville.amazon.com/screensavers-kindle/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=62278819)

  2. Paul says:

    More on (13)

    Looks very similar to “The Samian Sibyl” – http://en.wahooart.com/A55A04/w.nsf/Opra/BRUE-8BWQZU – by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (better known as Guercino or Il Guercino), but either Amazon have played around with the image a lot or it’s reproduced from a painting after Guercino by a different artist

  3. Miriam says:

    Hi!!

    I have find this one and it really seems her!

    http://worldart.sjsu.edu/Obj12585?sid=16218&x=1648200

    • markfiend says:

      Thank you Sasha, it certainly looks like the same image!

      I’ll correct the post to reflect that source, and see if I can find a more permanent link

  4. Jean Atkin says:

    Thank you for doing this!

  5. Lucy B says:

    Thanks for this!

  6. Lucy B says:

    Is 23 a Grant Calculating Machine?
    Link

    • markfiend says:

      It certainly looks like it! Thank you. (I’ve edited your comment to make the link a bit more manageable, I hope you don’t mind.)

  7. Nachi says:

    Ophiuchus and Serpens, I found a similar work by Sir James Thornhill, 1725, it seems a based (colored) copy of Flamsteed, indeed.

  8. Sylvia says:

    Image #2:

    http://abluteau.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/audubon_424.jpg?w=355&h=500
    http://abluteau.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/the-birds-of-america-136/

    Musée de la civilisation,
    collection du Séminaire de Québec,
    The Birds of America,
    John James Audubon,
    424/1993.35027

    Brown-headed Cowbird, Fox Sparrow, House Finch, Lazuli Bunting, Evening Grosbeak, Rosy Finch

  9. Sylvia says:

    You’re very welcome!

    Both the Jules Verne and Jane Austen images are always attributed to “The Hulton Archive / Getty Images” which come from a collection of British Press images now owned by Getty Images:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulton_Archive#Hulton_Picture_Library

    Image #4:

    Jules Verne Original:

    From a News Photo, 1877:

    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jules-verne-french-novelist-here-in-1877-news-photo/89863212?Language=en-US

    Image #6:

    Jane Austen Original:
    From an Original Family Photo , 1790

    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/english-novelist-jane-austen-from-an-original-family-news-photo/2667605

  10. Sylvia says:

    Yeah – what a racket!

  11. Sharon says:

    Image 2: The seven birds in the tree correctly are from John James Audubon’s, “Birds of America”. The plate number is 424. The birds are numbered on the drawing, 1 – 7, and are in order from the top. The plate caption below the drawing reads: Lazuli Finch (1. female), Crimson-necked Bull-finch (2. male), Grey- crowned Linnet (3. male), Cow-pen Bird (4. young male), Evening Grosbeak (center, with it’s head L of branch) 5. female), (Left of center is, 6. young male), Brown Longspur (7. female). There are only six captions on the plate, as the Evening Grosbeak is listed once, with 5. female and 6. young male, llisted underneath. The names are the Audubon names vs the common names. You can browse the plates, and look at the images/texts/captions at the following link: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/a/audubon/plates.html. Drawings are by JJ Audubon; Engraving, printing and colouring by Robert Havell, 1838. Hope this helps.

  12. Lisa says:

    THANK YOU ALL so much for researching these pictures! I love them and have been mystified as to what many are, especially who the people in the Duerer and Holbein pix are, the Hevelius
    sextant, and the first page of John’s Gospel. I was surprised when I couldn’t find the info on the Amazon Kindle site 2 years ago.

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  14. Noel says:

    I think you can be more positive about image 23. Following the link you posted after Lucy B’s reply, takes us to an image that seems beyond doubt to be the Kindle image because all the numbers showing on the device on the Kindle image match the numbers shown on one of the devices on the linked page. That page identifies the image thus:

    Mechanical calculating machine by George B. Grant Co. Illustration published in Scientific American, May 1877. Source: Wikipedia

    Following this link eventually leads to Wikipedia at:

    This names the ultimate source as an advertisement in
    “Scientific American” Vol. XXXVI, No. 19, May 12, 1877 p.294 New York: Munn &Company (Publisher)
    “The Cooper Collections” (uploader’s private collection)

  15. markfiend says:

    Thanks Noel. I’ll update the post.

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