"In support of Libraries, books, words, ideas and those places that house our treasures..."

- from a tag accompanying a mysterious and beautiful paper sculpture found in the National Museum of Scotland.

The note was attached to a copy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World that this T-Rex is bursting through (his tail pokes through the other side of the spine of the book!) This was one of ten sculptures in all, left anonymously in libraries and museums in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In mid-november a clue in library guest book first pointed the way to a small pair of gloves and a feathered hat, all made of paper at the Scottish Poetry Library.

a close up of the hat feathers made of book pages

Then came a "Poetree", found sitting on a table in the same library, with an eggshell filled with strips that when properly assembled, became a poem about birds, "A Trace of Wings" by Edwin Morgan.

These were made as a token of thanks by an unknown woman, celebrating the importance of libraries, books, words, and ideas. The sculptures are fantastic. And it's such a beautiful and inspiring project!

Discover the full story and see more of her fantastic creations, read the NPR articles here and here. And for the source of these (and more) photos, check out Central Station Blog's post here.