Mary Orvis Marbury Trout Flies Journal — 1892 Fly Fishing Notebook

In 1892, a woman named Mary Orvis Marbury published a book that would become one of the foundational texts of American fly fishing: Favourite Flies and Their Histories — a comprehensive catalogue of artificial fly patterns gathered from anglers across the United States, illustrated with colour plates of extraordinary precision and beauty. Marbury had grown up at the Orvis Company, founded by her father Charles F. Orvis in 1856, and had spent years tying flies and corresponding with anglers from Maine to California. Her book was the first to document the full range of American fly patterns systematically — and one of the first works of angling literature written by a woman to be received as definitive.

This journal carries those 1892 illustrations across its full wraparound cover. The colour plates show trout fly patterns with the precision of natural history illustration: the hackles and wings, the silk bodies and wire ribbing, the brilliant colors of feathers sourced from across the globe — peacock herl, partridge, tropical birds — all rendered with the fidelity that makes Marbury’s plates as useful to the fly tier today as they were in 1892. Each fly is a small, intricate, brilliantly colored object. Together they form one of the most beautiful examples of American sporting illustration.

Product Details

• Format: Hardcover journal
• Pages: 150 lined pages (75 sheets) with perforations for easy removal
• Binding: Casewrap sewn binding — flexible and lay-flat
• Dimensions: 5.75 × 8 inches
• Weight: 100 g
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap print
• Illustrations: Mary Orvis Marbury, trout fly patterns (1892)
• Source: Favourite Flies and Their Histories, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1892
• Digitally enhanced from the original 1892 edition

Perfect For

• Fly fishers and trout anglers
• Fly tying enthusiasts and pattern collectors
• Fishing history collectors and Orvis fans
• Women’s sporting history admirers
• Anyone who appreciates 19th-century angling illustration
• A beautiful gift for those who love fly fishing and trout streams

The Story Behind the Illustrations

The woman who gathered the knowledge of anglers across America, the book she published, and the tradition of fly illustration she helped define — read the full story on our blog →