Historical Bee and Beekeeping Literature

If you have noticed, our newsletter’s editor has an inclination for historical bee and beekeeping literature. If your historic interest parallels that of our editor’s, as it does mine, then I have just the links for you. The last page of January 2017 issue of the Alamance County Beekeepers Newsletter featured a copy of the last page of Volume 1 from the January 1861 issue of The American Bee Journal entitled “Monthly Management.” This page was retrieved from “The Hive and the Honeybee” digital collection that is part of the Everett Franklin Phillips Beekeeping Collection housed in the Mann Library at Cornell University. This site includes access to the complete digital volumes of the The American Bee Journal published between 1861 and 1900. Once a volume is selected from HERE the format for viewing that document can be selected from the menu item entitled “Format” either as an image or text or PDF. Note that text search boxes are available. Currently online there are 48 books and 30 volumes of The American Bee Journal published between 1861 and 1900. 

Another website that may pique your interest is The Charles C. Miller Apicultural Collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that currently includes digitized copies of the following beekeeping serial titles:

  • Beekeepers instructor
  • California Apiculturist
  • Moon’s Busy Bee
  • National Bee Gazette
  • Nebraska Beekeeper
  • New England Apiarian
  • North American Bee Journal
  • Pacific Bee Journal
  • Pacific States Bee Journal
  • Queen Breeders Journal
  • Western bee-keeper
  • White Mountain Apiarist

Enjoy some winter reading!