Thursday, June 8, 2017

Biodiversity Heritage Library

Somewhere close I knew spear-nosed bats flew through the tree crowns in search of fruit, palm vipers coiled in ambush in the roots of orchids, jaguars walked the river's edge; around them eight hundred species of trees stood, more than are native to all of North America; and a thousand species of butterflies, 6 percent of the entire world fauna, waited for the dawn.
~Edward O. Wilson


Art from the Biodiversity Heritage Library today. I really had a hard time stopping. So many pleasing and curious things! (Click to embiggen.)

from The naturalist's miscellany, or Coloured figures of natural objects
by George Shaw, 1751-1813
illustrated by F.P. Nodder and R.P. Nodder

from De dieren van Nederland
by Hermann Schlegel, 1804-1884

from De dieren van Nederland
by Hermann Schlegel, 1804-1884

from De dieren van Nederland
by Hermann Schlegel, 1804-1884

from Himalayan journals; or, Notes of a naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, &c.
by Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1817-1911

from Flora of America, drawn after nature on the spot. Rich collection of most remarkable plants, flowers & fruits of size & natural size.
By Etienne Denisse

from The plums of New York ...
by U.P. Hedrick, 1911

from The main gifts of Dutch East Indies
by P. A. Ouwens

from Exact description of the main natural curiosites of Albert Seba's magnificent cabinet
Albertus Seba, 1665-1736


2 comments:

HWY said...

Super illustrations. I was particularly taken with the mountain drawing by Hooker, the Flora of America by Denisse, and the Albertus Seba strange "curiosities."

Retta said...

It's fascinating to think of what those artists went through to accurately record their world. I kept looking at the one by John Murray, of East Nepal. Photography was in it's infancy, so it was the artist who revealed these locations and animals to people. I was thinking of all the hardship in those days he must have gone through to be up on location, drawing Himalayan mountains in such intricate detail. Amazing.