When we came across ColorOurCollections —coloring books derived from artwork in museums, libraries and universities around the world — we remembered a reader’s eloquent description of just how powerful the practice of coloring can be:

To play with color, and allow time to relax into the flow. It actually has opened me to more creativity, and allowing time for such. I’m 60 years old, and cannot draw with any perspective, and I am quite contented with that…With sketched lines and colored pencils I get to practice laying on colors, coordinating and shading and it truly lifts my heart. It doesn’t take an investment, a place to display, and travels easily. I can scan through my few pages anytime and smile… remembering the colors of the desert hills, the rain forest, or the garden where I spent some time, and was inspired, rested, and gave thanks.

It came in answer to our skepticism of the coloring book craze that burst on the scene in 2015, wondering if it was not better to try your hand at your own brand of expression.

Browsing through the many digital coloring books offered through ColorOurCollections, we think “even better”, to look closely at, and color, the visions of another time, and in that way, dreamily travel through time and space…

Once you start looking into the offerings, it’s hard to stop; there is much to see and learn. Here’s our selection of possibilities for adding your own magical coloring, starting with New York Botanical Garden‘s vintage flower drawings, above.

At Cambridge University’s coloring book, we found this lovely mobile shrine from a richly illuminated 16th Century copy of the Persian version of Qazwini’s The marvels of creation and the oddities of existence…

The Vatican Collection has a surprising number of treasures. We’d love to color this drawing of Minerva by Giovanni Baglione in the 16th century…

 

…or these wonderful sea birds from the 2018 Vatican coloring book…

 

Harvard Center for the History of Medicine also surprises with creatures that could be from fairy tales…

 

At the Europeana Collection...we found a woodcut for 16th century Italian kitchen

And then there’s the Cornell University Albert R. Mann Library’s entomology collections…

 

You’ll find the full range of offerings from ColorOurCollections here. For your own quick browsing, here’s a selection that the great Open Culture compiled:

• New York Academy of Medicine
• The New York Botanical Garden Coloring Book
• The New York Public Library Coloring Book
• Smithsonian Libraries Coloring Book
• Cambridge University Library Coloring Book
• Chemical Heritage Foundation Coloring Book
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art Coloring Book
• Newberry Library Coloring Book
• American Bookbinders Museum Coloring Book
• Auraria Library Coloring Book
• Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de Santé, Paris Coloring Book
• Biodiversity Heritage Library Coloring Book Part 1
• Biodiversity Heritage Library Coloring Book Part 2
• Biodiversity Heritage Library Coloring Book Part 3
• Biodiversity Heritage Library Coloring Book Part 4
• Biodiversity Heritage Library Coloring Book Part 5
• Bodleian Library at Oxford University
• Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection Coloring Sheets
• Dittrick Medical History Center Coloring Book
• Digital Library@Villanova University Coloring Books
• Digita Vaticana Coloring Book
• Europeana Art Nouveau Color Book
• Europeana Colouring Book
• Frances Willard Memorial Library and Archives Coloring Sheet
• Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Coloring Book
• Hunter College Libraries – City University of New York Coloring Book
• The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
• James Madison University Libraries Coloring Book
• Marian Library, University of Dayton
• National Library of Medicine Coloring Book
• National Museum Wales Coloring Book
• New York Academy of Medicine Famous Women Coloring Sheet
• OHSU Historical Collections & Archives Coloring Sheets
• Royal College of Physicians
• Special Collections and Archives, Trexler Library, Muhlenberg College Coloring Books
• The Rosenbach Coloring Sheets
• University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources
• University of Houston Special Collections Coloring Book
• University of Oregon Coloring Book
• University of Scranton Archives and McHugh Special Collections Coloring Book
• University of Puget Sound, Collins Memorial Library, Archives & Special Collections Coloring Book
• University of Reading Museums and Collections Coloring Book
• Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine, University of Minnesota Libraries
• Williams College Libraries Coloring Sheets