Every once in a while you take a turn on the internet and discover a treasure trove. This is a great resource on old pinhole literature and a great new online book on pinhole photography.The site is:

Nick Dvoracek Pinhole Photography

The above page has a link to a .pdf file of:

The Pinhole of Nature

Hosta after rain I specifically seek things of a temporal nature, things that don't last very long. I suppose in some climates water drops on plants are constant, but it only happens every couple of days around here, and of course the plants change, and of course the lighting changes, and it looks different if you look at it from a different point of view. This of course is a characteristic of all photography. Not so visually apparent is that nothing has moved during the five or so minutes it took for enough light to fall through the little tiny hole to create a response in the light sensitive surface, a somewhat rare circumstance. This is not typical of the pinhole photography experience. Most stuff moves and the sun actually zips along the sky pretty quickly, smearing sunbeams across a scene. Part of the appeal is kind of a macho competition just to see if you can pull off getting an image at all with a pinhole camera.

It is a must read. Nick's Pinhole Page also has a link to a page of old pinhole tracts:

Historical articles on pinhole photography

I was a History major as an undergraduate, and I've always found it interesting to look at primary sources of materials. Here are some historical references and some articles on pinhole photography from the late 19th and early 20th century. In chronological order except where I've grouped a couple by the same author together.

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He has some real treasures here. I have a copy of Advanced Pinhole Photography by H. D'Arcy Power (1905) but his copy has better reproductions of the pictures. This is a treasure of information on pinholes.