Great stuff. Seeing Willingham is a treat. I completely forgot about him.
1st and 2nd edition material certainly deserves special mention and I will admit that it is definitely better than 3rd edition material in one important way and that is that previous to 3rd edition many of the illustrations displayed a scene.
Whereas 3rd edition illustrations concern themselves with showing us what an orc looks like or what a dragon looks like, previous editions went farther and showed us something actually occuring in the illustration, be it a mage summoning a monster, a group of adventurers combating evil or a thief disarming a trap.
3rd edition is a lot more about what something looks like. 1st and 2nd edition is a lot more about showing you a particular event.
That said, I still prefer the quality of 3rd edition with a few exceptions.
Can someone please explain how to attach an image to a post so I can show you some of my favorites instead of posting links?