Toronto Reference Library Blog

We had an interesting question the other day on altars from a user who wanted to build a home altar.  Several great books came from the stacks / storage but these two in particular seemed to show the depth and breadth of the collection.

Home Altars of Mexico is a newer book published in 1997 by a small regional press at University of New Mexico.  It's rich with large sized color photographs by Dana Salvo  that show this amazing regional religious devotion part icon, part decorative and part family memorial.   The intellectual content is high quality with footnotes and extensive analysis – the book is soft cover and doesn't have a lot of physical presence.

On the other hand Some Notable Altars  has a beautifully gilded and embossed cover – with an elegant and engaging font on the cover and a very readable text – and black and white illustrations shot straight on – with facing text describing each altar (including cost when available!).  It has a lot of presence as a book – and given that it's was published in 1908 by the venerable firm of Macmillan the fact the photographs are not in color is understandable – but they're good quality – taken from a bit of distance – with no close ups available.  The paper is thicker quality – almost like construction or invitation paper – and the top edge of the book is gilded – which allows easy dusting and affords a bit of protection to the page – plus gives it a nice rich feeling.

If you're interested in creating a home altar try these books:

We had an interesting question the other day on altars from a user who wanted to build a home altar.  Several great books came from the stacks / storage but these two in particular seemed to show the depth and breadth of the collection.

Home Altars of Mexico is a newer book published in 1997 by a small regional press at University of New Mexico.  It's rich with large sized color photographs by Dana Salvo  that show this amazing regional religious devotion part icon, part decorative and part family memorial.   The intellectual content is high quality with footnotes and extensive analysis – the book is soft cover and doesn't have a lot of physical presence.

On the other hand Some Notable Altars  has a beautifully gilded and embossed cover – with an elegant and engaging font on the cover and a very readable text – and black and white illustrations shot straight on – with facing text describing each altar (including cost when available!).  It has a lot of presence as a book – and given that it's was published in 1908 by the venerable firm of Macmillan the fact the photographs are not in color is understandable – but they're good quality – taken from a bit of distance – with no close ups available.  The paper is thicker quality – almost like construction or invitation paper – and the top edge of the book is gilded – which allows easy dusting and affords a bit of protection to the page – plus gives it a nice rich feeling.

If you're interested in creating a home altar try these books: