Picked up a 1960s guide to wild mushrooms for $1 at a library sale and it's way better than any app I've tried

I found this old book called 'Mushrooms of the Northeast' from like 1965 at a library sale last month for a dollar. Figured it would be outdated crap but I flipped through it and the illustrations are hand-drawn and super detailed. Took it on a hike last weekend and identified 3 different mushrooms just from the way the gills attached to the stem. No app has ever been that clear for me. Has anyone else had luck with old field guides over modern ones for identifying stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

cora_perez1d ago

Honestly, the hand-drawn illustrations in those old guides make such a difference. I've noticed the same thing with my dad's 1970s bird book - the artists focused on the little details like how a feather lays or the shape of a beak, stuff that gets lost in modern photos that are all glamour shots. With mushrooms, the way a guide shows the spore print or the texture of the cap is way more useful for actual identification than some blurry phone pic. Ngl, the old books felt like they were actually written for people who wanted to learn, not just look at pretty pictures.

lunah8617h ago

Right? That old bird book sounds exactly like my grandpa's mushroom guide, those hand-drawn cap details are pure gold for learning.