The books originally came out in 1930 with blue boards and orange printing surrounded by
darker printing. There was no orange silhouette on the books at first. From 1930-1932
for volume #'s 1-7, the boards were just like the picture above on the left.
Beginning in 1932 with volume #8, Nancy's Mysterious Letter, the orange silhouette with shadow underneath that we are so familiar with was added to the front cover--as shown above middle.
This silhouette adorned the covers of volumes #'s 8-23 and 1932 and later printings of volume #'s 1-7. As the years went by, the shades of blue varied somewhat.
Beginning in 1946 and lasting only that year were the boards to the above right featuring the usual
blue colored boards and the silhouette with shadow, however, the silhouette and lettering
were blue.
These books were only out in this particular format for some of the 1946
printings, and are consequently harder to find than the blue with orange books or the
tweeds. Only volume #'s 1-23 were printed with this format of boards.
In 1947, the silhouette was revised and the look of Nancy changed from the more 1930's
figure
in heels and familiar scarf to a more stocky figure without the scarf, heels, and shadow.
After all, chasing crooks in heels is a real ankle twister! But don't worry, the stories
themselves still have her sleuthing in heels!
Volume #'s 1-28 featured these blue boards with blue revised silhouette and blue lettering.
In 1951, the familiar tweed style boards, featured at right, were introduced.
These are quite common today. They featured the same revised blue silhouette and blue lettering as the previous books.
Volumes #'s 1-38 featured these tweed-style boards.
The following table breaks down all the board formats above in simple easy to reference table. An 'X' means that featured board was used for that particular volume.
