Naturalists 18th century
Eleazar Albin was a British naturalist and author of illustrated books on birds and insects.
Albin wrote and illustrated a number of books, including A Natural History of English Insects (1720), A Natural History of Birds (1731-38), and A Natural History of Spiders and Other Curious Insects (1736). His work was based on careful observation and artistic talent. Eleazar Albin has been called one of the "great illustrators of entomological books of the 18th century".
Some of the illustrations in these books are by Albin's daughter Elisabeth. Eleazar Albin himself proudly wrote of his drawings that they were all painted from life, with all the accuracy of a sketch, unlike the sketches of other scientists, who did them either from memory or from stories.
Aimé Bonpland, born Aimé Jacques Alexandre Goujaud, was a French and Argentine natural scientist, traveler, physician, and botanist.
Bonpland became famous for his participation in an expedition to the Americas. Together with the explorer Alexander von Humboldt, he traveled through much of the American territory, from Cuman to the United States, passing through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and Cuba, in addition to Venezuela. In all these places he did a great deal of botanical work, describing and collecting six thousand species of American plants, many of which were new. The scientist made them known in Europe after his return in 1804, publishing several scientific papers. Four years later, Bonpland was appointed botanist of the Empress's Garden.
After more years, he returned to Buenos Aires and continued numerous botanical, zoological, and medical studies in various regions of South America. Bonpland sent plants to the Museum of Natural History in Paris and maintained correspondence with its naturalists.
Mathurin Jacques Brisson was a French zoologist, ornithologist, naturalist and physicist, a member of the Academy of Sciences.
He is known for his published works in natural history: Le Règne animal ("The Kingdom of Animals", 1756) and Ornithologie ("Ornithology", 1760), in which he described 1,500 species of birds grouped into 115 genera, twenty-six orders, and two classes. Brisson was one of the first to come close to the concept of "type" in zoology, although he does not use the term, but his classification was used for about 100 years. He translated a number of important books on zoology for his time into French.
Brisson's works in physics are related to the measurement of specific gravity of various bodies, the study of gases and refraction of light, mirrors, magnetism, atmospheric electricity, and barometers.
Giovanni Battista Brocchi was an Italian mineralogist, geologist and paleontologist.
Brocchi studied law at the University of Padua, but was seriously interested in natural sciences and mineralogy. In 1802, Brocchi became a teacher of natural history at the Brescia Gymnasium. Appointment in 1808 as inspector of mines in Milan gave him the opportunity to travel extensively in Italy, making extensive notes and collecting numerous samples. The fruits of these labors appeared in various publications, notably his "Treatise mineralogical and chemical on the iron mines of the department of Mella" (1808). He then obtained a position as inspector of mining in the newly created kingdom of Italy.
In 1811 Brocchi wrote a valuable essay entitled "Mineralogical Memoirs on the Fassa Valley in the Tyrol." He made his first extensive exploration of central Italy in 1811-1812, witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius, and was able to compare the condition of its crater before and after the eruption. But his most important work is Fossils of the Sub-Apennines with geological observations on the Apennines and adjacent soil (1814), which contains precise details of the structure of the Apennine ridge and an account of the fossilization of Italian Tertiary strata in comparison with existing species. Brocchi also wrote several significant works on biology.
In the fall of 1822 he sailed from Trieste to Egypt, whence he made excursions up the Nile and into Syria and Palestine. In 1826 he contracted the bubonic plague, of which he died. His last journals and collections are preserved at the Museo Civico in Bassano. In all, Brocchi published five voluminous books and about seventy articles in various journals.
Patrick Browne was an Irish physician and historian, traveler, naturalist and botanist.
Patrick Browne studied medicine in Paris, graduated from the University of Reims, continued his studies in Leiden, and then worked as a doctor at St. Thomas' Hospital in London. Subsequently, he lived for many years in the Caribbean, in Antigua, Santa Cruz, Montserrat and Jamaica, where he practiced medicine. He devoted all his spare time to the study of the natural history of the island. In 1771, Brown returned to Mayo County.
In 1756, Brown published A Civil and Natural History of Jamaica, his most significant work in terms of Carl Linnaeus's botanical nomenclature, which included new names for 104 genera.
William Clark, an American frontiersman, is best known for co-leading the epic Lewis and Clark Expedition alongside Meriwether Lewis from 1804 to 1806. This journey was a monumental exploration of the American West, extending to the Pacific Northwest, which laid the foundation for westward expansion and significantly contributed to the nation's knowledge of the vast territory.
Before his fame as an explorer, William Clark had a substantial military career, beginning with his service in the militia and the U.S. Army during the Northwest Indian War. His experiences in the military, including participation in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, honed his leadership and survival skills, which were crucial for the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Following the expedition, William Clark continued to serve in significant roles, including as the governor of Missouri Territory and as a superintendent of Indian Affairs. His later years were dedicated to managing relations with various Native American tribes, navigating the complexities of the expanding American frontier.
For collectors and experts in art, history, and antiques, William Clark's life and contributions offer a fascinating lens through which to explore the early 19th-century American narrative. His maps, journals, and other related artifacts provide a unique perspective on this formative period in U.S. history.
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Pieter Cramer was a Dutch merchant and traveler and entomologist.
A cloth and wool merchant, Cramer traveled the world and amassed an extensive collection of sea shells, fossils, and various insects. Many colorful butterflies and moths were collected in Surinam, Ceylon, Sierra Leone, and the Dutch East Indies - countries with which Holland had colonial or trade ties. Kramer hired the artist Gerrit Wartenaar Lambertz to sketch butterfly specimens collected not only by him but also by other Dutch collectors. The illustrations were very numerous, and Kramer, together with the naturalist and entomologist Caspar Stoll, decided to publish them.
The resulting encyclopedia, De Uitlandsche Kapellen, is one of the key works in the history of entomology. The scales from Asia, Africa and the Americas are depicted in life-size and hand-colored engravings. It was the first book on exotic butterflies to use the new system of animal classification developed by Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). Over 1,658 species of butterflies were described and illustrated on 400 plates. Many species were depicted and named for the first time.
William Curtis was a British botanist and entomologist, editor of the oldest botanical publication in Great Britain.
Curtis became interested in natural history in his youth, and at the age of 25 had already published "Instructions for the Collection and Preservation of Insects", particularly butterflies. In 1779 he founded his own London botanical garden at Lambeth and published Flora Londinensis (1777-1798), a 6-volume work on urban nature.
In 1787 Curtis began publishing the later popular Botanical Magazine, which also featured hand-colored plates by artists. This magazine has changed its name several times over time, but is still continued by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as a publication for those interested in horticulture, ecology or botanical illustration. Interestingly, the magazine was entirely hand-colored until 1948.
Joseph Wilhelm Eduard d'Alton was a German engraver, naturalist and educator.
He had an initial military education and later studied art and natural history while traveling in Italy and France. Eduard d'Alton is widely known for his anatomical and zoological engravings and etchings. In 1818, d'Alton was appointed professor of natural history at the University of Bonn, where he later began to teach art history as well. Among his students was Karl Marx.
D'Alton's son Johann Samuel Eduard d'Alton (1803-1854), professor of anatomy, continued his father's unfinished Osteologie (Bonn, 1827-1838) and published the first volume of the Handbook of Comparative Human Anatomy.
John Dalton was a British scientist, chemist and physicist, naturalist, and pioneer in the development of modern atomic theory.
In the 1800s, he was the first scientist to explain the behavior of atoms in terms of weight measurements. Some of the tenets of Dalton's atomic theory proved to be false, but most of the conclusions remain valid to this day.
Problems with his own eyesight led Dalton to research and describe the visual defect he himself suffered from in 1794 - color blindness, later named color blindness in his honor.
Johann Wilhelm Gerhard von Brahm, also known as John William Gerard de Brahm, was a German cartographer, military engineer, and surveyor who worked for Great Britain to develop the lands of the New World.
His father was court musician to the Elector of Trier and gave his son an excellent early education. After a successful career as a military engineer in the Bavarian army, de Brahm traveled to Georgia in 1751 at the head of a group of German emigrants. There he displayed his talents as a surveyor and engineer, worked as a cartographer, and was commissioned by South Carolina Governor James Glen to design and build a system of fortifications for Charleston.
In 1755 de Brahm was appointed inspector general of lands for South Carolina and soon for the entire New World. He settled in St. Augustine, where he spent the next six years researching and preparing maps. His major works, "Map of South Carolina" and "Map of South Carolina and Part of Georgia," provide detailed topography and even describe underwater features. And his "Report of a General Survey of the Southern District of North America" records every detail from tide times to tips on tilling the soil. De Brahm's book The Atlantic Pilot, an instruction manual for sailing in Florida, was published in London and included the first published map of the Gulf Stream.
Denis Dodart was a French botanist, naturalist and physician.
Dodart studied at the University of Paris, received a doctorate in medicine and was already in his youth known for his erudition, eloquence and open-mindedness. In 1673 he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences.
He is known for his early studies of plant respiration and growth. Dodart collaborated with the French engraver Nicolas Robert to illustrate his botanical works.
Edward Donovan was a British-Irish amateur zoologist, illustrator and writer.
He was an avid collector and founded the Natural History Museum and Institute in London, which housed his extensive collection of natural history objects. Donovan was the author of a large number of works on natural history, and wrote several volumes on British birds, fish, and insects, botanical surveys, and on the entomology of China and India. All of these publications were supplied with good quality and detailed illustrations.
Dru Drury was a British entomologist and collector.
Dru Drury was an avid collector and his entomological collection totals 11,000 specimens. Drury corresponded extensively with entomologists from all over the world, from India to Jamaica to America, and bought any insects for 60 cents from officers of merchant ships arriving from afar. He even supplied travelers with a pamphlet of collecting instructions. It was through this work that Drury amassed most of his collection. From 1770 to 1787 he published three volumes on entomology, Illustrations of Natural History, with over 240 drawings of exotic insects.
Drury was president of the Society of Entomologists of London from 1780 to 1782, and a member of the Linnaean Society.
Johann Anton Güldenstädt was a Russian scientist, naturalist and traveler born of Baltic Germans.
Born in Riga, then part of the Russian Empire, Güldenstädt studied pharmacy, botany and natural history in Berlin from 1763. At the age of 22, he earned a doctorate in medicine from the University of Frankfurt. The following year he became a member of an expedition of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences sent by Catherine the Great to explore the southern borders of the Russian Empire.
Güldenstädt traveled through Ukraine and the Astrakhan region, as well as the North Caucasus and Georgia. In March 1775 the scientist returned to St. Petersburg. The results of this expedition were published after his premature death from typhoid fever at the age of 36.
This expedition made a great contribution in the fields of biology, geology, geography and especially linguistics. Guldenstedt made detailed notes on the languages of the region. Güldenstädt's materials are still constantly consulted by linguists. Dictionaries of one and a half dozen languages and dialects of the Caucasian peoples compiled by him 250 years ago serve as a valuable basis for research in linguistics and toponymy. He was one of the first European scholars to study the life and culture of the Kumyks, Ingush, Ossetians, Chechens and other North Caucasian peoples.
Güldenstädt was also the first to describe and characterize the soils, vegetation and fauna of the South Russian steppes, and one of the first to explain the origin of black soil.
Adrian Hardy Haworth was a British scientist of entomology, botany and carcinology, and a Fellow of the Linnean Society.
Haworth made significant contributions to botany and entomology, describing many species of plants and insects. He summarized and published the results of his entomological collections in the extensive Lepidoptera Britannica (1803-1828), which was the first major monograph on the scales of Britain and one of the most authoritative works of the 19th century. Haworth was also a carcinologist and specialized in shrimps.
John Hill was a British botanist, pharmacologist and physician, geologist, writer and journalist.
Hill edited the monthly British Magazine for several years, and also wrote a daily society gossip column in The London Advertiser and Literary Gazette. His satirical, often on the edge of propriety articles were often the cause of scandals. Hill also wrote novels, plays, and scientific works on geology, medicine, philosophy, and botany.
In 1759, the first of the 26 volumes of his Plant System was published. This voluminous work contained descriptions of 26,000 different plants and 1,600 illustrations. For this long work, Hill received the Order of Vasa from the Swedish king and began calling himself Sir.
Martinus Houttuyn (Dutch: Maarten Houttuyn) was a Dutch botanist, zoologist and physician.
In addition to his medical practice, Houttuyn practiced science and published many scientific works on natural history, including minerals, fossils, botany and zoology. He was also a keen student of ferns, mosses and seed plants.
Georg Wolfgang Knorr was a German engraver, naturalist, and one of the first paleontologists of the 18th century.
Knorr was first apprenticed to his father as a lathe operator, and at the age of eighteen became a copper engraver for Leongard Blank, working with Martin Tiroff on the illustrations for Jacob Scheuchzer's Physica Sacra (1731). This work and his acquaintance with J.A. Beurer, a mineralogist and correspondent of the Royal Society, awakened Knorr's interest in natural history.
In the 1750s Knorr began publishing his own sumptuous folios. One of the most beautiful books of the eighteenth century is devoted to sea shells.
Jacob L'Admiral (Dutch: Jacob L'Admiral) was a Dutch entomologist, naturalist and artist.
L'Admiral was a gifted amateur entomologist, he was fascinated by insects from the age of ten. He studied the life cycle and metamorphosis of a number of species of butterflies, moths and other insects. And he himself made sketches and engravings showing the life cycles of insects, from egg to caterpillar, from pupa to adult, as well as their host plants. Through his work, L'Admiral was increasing the body of scientific work of the time, begun by pioneers in entomology such as Maria Sibylla Merian. In all, L'Admiral illustrated seventy metamorphoses on thirty-three engraved plates.
Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz was a French historian, ethnographer, naturalist and writer.
Le Page du Pratz studied architecture, engineering and astronomy. In 1718, at the age of 23, he sailed to Louisiana and lived there for 16 years, until 1734. He also traveled extensively along the Mississippi, reaching as far as present-day Memphis. His familiarity with the local Natchez people and his knowledge of their language and customs formed the basis for some of the most fascinating parts of his writings.
His History of Louisiana first began publication in twelve issues from 1751 to 1753 in the Journal Economique, and then was published in full in three volumes in Paris in 1758. The three-volume history of early colonial Louisiana is lavishly illustrated. Part of the book is devoted to an ethnographic description of the native inhabitants of Louisiana, particularly the Natchez people he knew well. Other sections describe the history of the colony, from the Spanish and French explorers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the establishment of French settlements along the Mississippi. Le Page du Pratz may have intended to give the colonists an understanding of the Indians, which he felt was necessary for good relations and therefore for the success of colonization. The author also gave his suggestions on agriculture, trade, and the treatment of African slaves.
Martin Frobenius Ledermüller was a German lawyer and amateur naturalist, popularizer of natural sciences.
Ledermüller received a law degree and worked in bureaucratic and legal positions, and it was only at an advanced age that he was able to pursue his favorite occupation - science, to which he would devote himself fully in future studies. The results of his work are the first most beautifully illustrated books of the eighteenth century devoted to microscopes and research with them.
Ledermüller's famous work Mikroskopische Gemüths- und Augenergötzungen was published in 1759 in French and Dutch and has been reprinted several times. The 158 beautifully illustrated pages show all sorts of natural objects, including shells, salts, plants and flowers, insects, human blood and urine viewed through a microscope. Several microscopes and their component parts are also illustrated.
François Levaillant was a French ornithologist, traveler and writer.
Levaillant was born in Dutch Guiana, where his father was French consul. He returned with his family to France, where he eventually became a dealer in natural history specimens. At the age of 27, trained as an ornithologist, he traveled to southern Africa with the Dutch East India Company to collect specimens for his collection. Levaillant was one of the first naturalist explorers to venture into uncharted and dangerous Africa to see and study birds in their natural habitat.
Returning to France in 1785 after several years of traveling, he began writing ornithological works based on his diaries. His Histoire naturelle des perroquets (Natural History of Parrots) was published between 1801 and 1805, and his six-volume History of the Nature of Africa was published between 1799 and 1808. Levaillant also wrote the popular book Le Vaillant's Voyage to the Interior of Africa and others. He was one of the first Europeans to make ethnographic observations, empathizing with African peoples and treating them as equals.
William Lewin was a British naturalist, ornithologist and illustrator.
Lewin for 20 years observed various birds and made sketches. And in 1789, with the help of his three sons, he began publishing a multi-volume work entitled "The Birds of Great Britain and their Eggs". It is truly a monumental work: 7 volumes, 323 hand-colored watercolor and gouache drawings of birds and their eggs. They were all painted by Levin himself for the first 60 subscribers to the publication. He did not complete the second edition, a more detailed one, and after his death his sons completed the publication.
This work is considered one of the rarest of all English bird books. Lewin's birds are depicted much more vividly and realistically than those of earlier artists, as he painted mainly from life rather than relying on specimens. Lewin also produced a volume on butterflies, where they are systematized and careful illustrations are drawn from life.
Meriwether Lewis was an American explorer renowned for leading the Lewis and Clark Expedition with William Clark from 1804 to 1806. This historic journey, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase, aimed to map the newly acquired territory, establish trade with and assert sovereignty over the native tribes, and find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. The expedition significantly contributed to the American understanding of the vast western territories and its diverse natural resources, flora, fauna, and indigenous cultures.
After the expedition, Lewis was appointed as the governor of the Louisiana Territory, where his administration was met with mixed reviews. He faced numerous challenges, including political disputes and financial troubles. Lewis's life came to a tragic end in 1809 under mysterious circumstances at Grinder's Inn, Tennessee, where he died from gunshot wounds in what is widely believed to be a case of suicide, though some debate around the circumstances persists.
For collectors and enthusiasts in art and antiques, the story of Meriwether Lewis provides a fascinating insight into early American exploration and the historical context that influenced American art and culture during the early 19th century. His legacy, immortalized through various portraits and memorials, continues to be a subject of interest and admiration.
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Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish naturalist, botanist and physician.
Carl Linnaeus created a unified system of classification of flora and fauna, in which he summarized and organized the knowledge of the entire previous period of development of biological science. He was the first to formulate the principles of definition of living beings of natural nature and created a unified system of their names, binary nomenclature. Linnaeus' book "The System of Nature", first published in 1735, is one of the most important books in the history of science and practically opened the classification of plants and animals.
Linnaeus was a professor at Uppsala University for many years, and he is also valued in Sweden as one of the creators of the literary Swedish language in its modern form. In addition to his work in botany and scientific classification, Linnaeus led many activities for the betterment of his native country. He was also involved in the establishment of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Martin Lister was a British naturalist and physician.
It could be argued that Lister founded two fields of natural history: arachnology (the study of spiders) and conchology (the study of the shells of organisms). He wrote more than 60 articles in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, published several volumes on natural history, speculated on the mysterious nature of fossils, and was successful as a physician.
Lister employed his artist daughters to illustrate his books on insects and molluscs - the names of Susanna and Anne appear on the title pages of the volumes. The Lister family published Historiæ Conchyliorum between 1685 and 1692.
Matthew Martin was a British merchant, naturalist and philanthropist.
He was a member of the Bath Philosophical Society, and in 1794 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Martin was the initiator of various ideas to improve the welfare of the poor. In addition, he was fond of entomology. His publication "Observations on marine worms, insects, etc., with notes and quotations from various authors" is well known.
Maria Sibylla Merian was a German-born naturalist and artist renowned for her contributions to entomology and botanical art. Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1647, Merian gained recognition for her detailed studies and illustrations of insects and plants, focusing on their life cycles and metamorphosis, which significantly advanced the field of entomology.
Maria Sibylla Merian's journey into the world of natural history began in her hometown of Frankfurt, where she started studying insects, particularly their metamorphosis. Her marriage to Johann Andreas Graff, an artist's apprentice, eventually took her to Nuremberg, where she continued her work and published her findings. Despite personal challenges, including an unhappy marriage, Merian's dedication to her studies remained unwavering.
A pivotal moment in Merian's life was her association with the Labadist community, where she delved deeper into her studies. Her time with the Labadists in Friesland allowed her to study a variety of species, further enriching her scientific endeavors. Merian's relentless pursuit of knowledge eventually led her to Amsterdam, a hub of scientific inquiry and trade, where she was exposed to a vast array of specimens from across the globe.
Maria Sibylla Merian's most ambitious expedition was to Suriname in South America, where she studied and documented the region's diverse flora and fauna. Her observations and illustrations from this expedition were groundbreaking, providing valuable insights into the natural world. Merian's works, including her detailed engravings and illustrations, not only captivate with their beauty but also serve as valuable scientific records. Her legacy is preserved in institutions like the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which houses some of her remarkable engravings.
Maria Sibylla Merian's life and work exemplify the profound impact of combining art and science, leaving an indelible mark on both fields. Her dedication to observing and documenting the natural world continues to inspire scientists and artists alike.
Cornelius Nozeman was a Dutch church minister and ornithological naturalist.
Nozeman was the inspiration for the best Dutch work on ornithology of the 18th century. This long-term project took more than 60 years in total to complete. The work, entitled Nederlandsche Vogelen ("Birds of the Netherlands"), was begun in 1770 by two Dutch craftsmen. The famous engraver and painter Christian Sepp drew the illustrations, and Nozeman wrote the text for the first two volumes. After the death of Nozeman and Sepp, the work on the publication of the work was continued by their successor, physician and biologist Martinus Houttuyn. This voluminous and unique work was completed in 1830 by Christian Sepp's son Jan Christian, a natural history publisher, and his grandson Jan Sepp.
Each volume of this five-volume work of science and art contains 50 images of bird species, and each species is described on several pages.
Peter Simon Pállas was a German and Russian scientist-encyclopedist, naturalist and traveler, who gave almost all his life to the service of Russia.
The breadth of his scientific interests made him a true encyclopedist, but he was particularly interested in natural sciences. By the age of 25, Pallas had already acquired European fame as a major scientist-naturalist. At the same time he received an invitation from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, where he was offered a professorship. In 1767, Pallas arrived in St. Petersburg with his wife and soon led several important expeditions to Siberia and southern Russia. In his numerous ethnographic descriptions, the scientist was the first to report in detail on the Kalmyks, Tatars, Mordvins, Chuvashs, Nagaians, Tungus (Evenks), Votyaks (Udmurts), and Cheremis (Mari). In addition, he brought with him large natural-scientific collections. Later he traveled with scientific expeditions to Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, Crimea and other previously unexplored lands.
In 1785 Catherine II attracted Pallas to the collection and comparative analysis of the languages of the peoples inhabiting America, Asia, Europe and Russia, and he compiled and published a comparative dictionary in two parts (1787-1789), in which more than 200 languages and dialects of the peoples of Asia and Europe were presented. In the last years of his life, among other things, Pallas was engaged in the preparation of a fundamental three-volume work on the fauna of Russia, Zoographia rosso-asiatica ("Russian-Asiatic Zoology"), in which more than 900 species of vertebrates, including 151 species of mammals, of which about 50 new species were introduced. This work was so extensive, and the descriptions of the animals were so thorough and detailed, that until the early 20th century the book remained the main source of knowledge about the fauna of Russia. In 1810. Peter Pallas went to Berlin to prepare illustrations for this work, but a year later the famous scientist died and was buried in Berlin.
A volcano in the Kuril Islands, a reef off New Guinea, and many animals and plants are named after Pallas.
Sydney Parkinson was a Scottish artist who sailed on the Endeavour with Captain Cook to South America, Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia.
The talented natural history illustrator was hired by renowned English naturalist and botanist Joseph Banks on James Cook's first voyage in the Pacific. In three years, Parkinson managed to make more than a thousand drawings of plants and animals collected by Banks and Daniel Solander during the voyage. And their number was staggeringly huge. He was also the first to draw the local inhabitants with the precision of an explorer. Parkinson's duties also included keeping a journal on board the ship. Without exaggeration, the artist's heroic and dedicated work under harsh conditions led to his premature death - he died of dysentery at sea on his way to Cape Town.
Sidney Parkinson was the first European artist to visit Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Without his Herculean efforts as a botanical artist, Banks' work would not have had such high scientific value. A large number of Parkinson's works have survived: the British Museum holds 18 volumes of his drawings of plants, of which eight relate to Australian plants, three volumes on zoological subjects, of which several sketches relate to Australia, and many of his landscapes and other drawings, mostly of the inhabitants of Tahiti and New Zealand.
Johann Baptist Emanuel Pohl was an Austrian and Czech scientist, botanist, naturalist, and traveler.
Pohl studied in Prague, earned a doctorate in medicine and practiced science, becoming one of the most prominent botanists in Bohemia. Consequently, he was invited on an expedition to Brazil. Johann Pohl arrived in Brazil in 1817 with the Italian botanist Giuseppe Raddi as part of a large scientific expedition sent by Francis I of Austria, and spent four years traveling through the states of Minas Gerais, Goias, Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro, including some 30 rivers in the country. He collected thousands of plant specimens, as well as studying minerals and zoology, exploring gold and diamond mines, caves, and villages of local people.
After his return to Europe, Pohl served as curator of the Vienna Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Brazil in Vienna until his death. His extensive collections, including some 4,000 plant specimens, were housed here along with the expedition's other scientific collections.
Lawrence Rawstorne was a British naturalist writer.
He is best known for his treatise Gamonia: or the Art of Preserving Game, which is devoted exclusively to the subject of pheasant breeding, concealed shooting, and the management of woodlands for the specific purpose of preserving game. The book contains 15 hand-colored aquatint plates by and drawing by J. T. Rawlins and was published in London in 1837.
John Ray was a British clergyman, naturalist, botanist and zoologist, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
He came from a poor family, but through his persistence in acquiring knowledge he achieved recognition as a scientist. Ray published important works on botany, zoology, and natural history. His classification of plants in Historia Plantarum was an important step toward modern taxonomy (the scientific study of naming, defining, and classifying groups of biological organisms based on common characteristics). John Ray was the first to provide a biological definition of the term "species."
August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof was a German entomologist and zoologist, naturalist and miniature painter.
He graduated from the Nuremberg Academy of Artists and was practicing miniature painting and printmaking when he became acquainted with the works of the artist and entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian. Her famous Surinam book of 1705 inspired Rösel to create a similar book, but with illustrations of the plants and animals of Germany.
Rösel began to study natural sciences, he collected insects, caterpillars and butterflies, observed their metamorphosis and wrote down his observations accompanied by pictures. From 1740 Rösel published the results of his scientific and artistic work: the Monthly Entertainments of Insects, in four volumes. He also published Historia naturalis Ranarum nostratium, devoted to the frogs of Germany. In the quality of the illustrations this book is one of the most beautiful about these animals.
Jacob Christian Schäffer was a German inventor, naturalist, entomologist and mycologist.
Schäffer was a very versatile scientist. He is best known for his work in mycology (the study of fungi), but his most important publication was undoubtedly a book on daphnia or water fleas.
Schäffer also published reference books on pharmaceuticals and medicinal herbs. He conducted experiments on electricity, colors, and optics, and invented the manufacture of prisms and lenses. He invented the washing machine, designs for which he published in 1767, and studied ways to improve paper production.
Schäffer was a professor at the Universities of Wittenberg and Tübingen, a member of the Royal Society of London, and a correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences.
Johann Jakob Scheuchzer was a Swiss naturalist and geologist, paleontologist and fossil collector.
Scheuchzer studied at the University of Altdorf near Nuremberg, earned a doctorate in medicine at Utrecht University, and studied astronomy. He worked as a teacher, physician, and corresponded extensively with many scientists, writing several papers, including those on Swiss research, weather, geology, and fossils. Scheuchzer collected fossils during his extensive travels. And, as a proponent of diluvialism, he believed that all fossils and layers of the earth were formed by the Flood.
Between 1731 and 1735, Scheuchzer published a massive four-volume work called Physica Sacra, which is essentially a commentary on the Bible. It presented the facts of natural history along with passages of scripture. Thus Physcia Sacra attempted to reconcile the Bible with science.
This book is also called the "Copper Bible" because it contains over 750 magnificent color engravings on copper plates. These engravings are in themselves the pinnacle of engraving from the Baroque period. The illustrations depict scenes with biblical and scientific motifs. They were based on his own cabinet of natural history and other famous European cabinets of rare specimens. The engravings were produced by highly skilled engravers, including Georg Daniel Heumann and Johann August Corwin.
During his lifetime, Johann Jakob Scheuchzer wrote 34 scientific papers and many articles, and he was a member of the Royal Society.
Heinrich Jacob Sivers was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian and scholar, poet and writer, naturalist and collector.
Sifers studied law and theology at the University of Kiel, and received his doctorate at the University of Rostock, where he lectured and wrote various works. He wrote many poems, sermons and ceremonial speeches in German, Swedish and Latin.
Heinrich Sivers also studied geology, traveled extensively in Scandinavia, and compiled his own mineral collection. In 1737 he sold many of his minerals, as well as a cabinet of Roman coins to Count Carl Gillenborg, today they can be seen at Lund University.
Charles Hamilton Smith was a British illustrator, naturalist, writer, and military spy.
In connection with his military service, Smith traveled extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and India. He was also a talented self-taught artist and illustrated historical works on the military uniforms of the British Empire army, medieval life, drew costumes of native and ancient inhabitants of the British Isles, costumes for the theater stage, and sketched various animals. In 1848 Smith published The Natural History of the Human Species.
Caspar Stoll was a Dutch naturalist and entomologist of German descent.
Caspar Stoll became known for his work on the historical illustrated encyclopedia De Uitlandsche Kapellen, a butterfly encyclopedia started by merchant and entomologist Peter Cramer. Butterflies and moths were collected by him on his travels in Surinam, Ceylon, Sierra Leone, and the Dutch East Indies, countries with which Holland had colonial or trade ties. Stoll continued and completed the publication of volumes of this work after Kramer's death. He also published several of his own works on other groups of insects.
Christoph Jacob Trew was a German botanist.
He was originally a city solicitor, court physician, Count Palatine of the Holy Roman Empire, an advisor to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. He also had an academic passion for botany. He was a member of the Royal Society of London, the Berlin Academy, and the Florentine Botanical Society. His interest in botany then led him to sponsor the publication of illustrated botanical books.
Antonio Vallisneri the Elder was an Italian naturalist, physician and geologist, collector, and member of the Royal Society of London.
He studied in Bologna, Venice, Padua and Parma and headed the chair first of practical medicine and then of theoretical medicine at the University of Padua. In addition to medicine, Vallisneri conducted important research in the natural sciences. In particular, in the field of geology, he is credited with recognizing the organic nature of fossils unrelated to the Great Flood, which contributed to the end of centuries-old disputes. His observations on the water cycle, thermal waters and some mines in the Apennines were also important.
Vallisneri was interested in all branches of the natural sciences, collecting numerous collections of animals, minerals, and other natural objects during his lifetime. The scientist compiled a brief catalog of his collection, which was published in 1733 by his son, Antonio Vallisneri, Jr. The Vallisneri Museum included naturalistic finds, anatomical preparations, medical and scientific instruments, antiques, and exotics from various cultures and eras as well as geographical origins. In 1734, his son donated this museum to the University of Padua, initiating the creation of a general museum for the university.
Antonio Vallisneri Jr. followed in his father's footsteps and for many years held the position of professor of natural history at the University of Padua. He devoted his life to collecting and processing his father's writings and tidying up his library, which contained about a thousand volumes. These were donated to the University Library in Padua.
Johannes Eusebius Voet was a Dutch physician, poet, entomologist and illustrator.
Voet worked as a physician in Dordrecht and had a large collection of insects and shells. Studying beetles and other insects, he wrote Catalogus Systematicus Coleopterorum, Systematische naamlijst van dat geslacht der Insecten dat men Torren noemt, which was published in 1804-1806. It was one of the best entomological works published in the Netherlands. It contained numerous original hand-colored engravings, many of them by C.F.C. Kleemann, Rösel's son-in-law.
Arnout Vosmaer was a Dutch naturalist and natural history collector.
From 1756 to 1795, Vosmaer was director, curator and researcher of the natural history collection begun by Princess Anne, wife of William IV, and continued by their son, William V. In 1752, he acquired the famous Albert Seb collection, which was later transferred to the cabinet of William V.
Arnaut Vosmaer produced a series of 34 booklets describing the animals in the prince's menagerie, which were published between 1766 and 1805 in Dutch and French. Many of the watercolor illustrations were done by the painter Aert Schouman (1710-1792) and engraved by the etching artist and book designer Simon Fokke (1712-1784).
Isaac Weld was an Irish explorer, writer, and artist.
After completing his studies, Isaac Weld traveled to the new lands of America in 1795, meeting Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. The purpose of his journey was to learn of opportunities for Irish resettlement. Returning in 1797, Weld soon published his book, A Journey through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. In general, Weld did not like the United States; he particularly noted the practice of slavery and the treatment of Native peoples by the rude new Americans. But he liked Canada and Quebec: he praised the views from the Citadel and reported that because of the low cost of land, a middle-income person could easily settle in the country for himself and his family.
This book by Weld was quite popular: it went through several editions from its first publication in 1799 to 1807. By 1820, it had also been translated into French, German, Italian, and Dutch.
In 1800 Weld was elected a member of the Royal Society of Dublin. In 1811 and 1812 he served on the library committee, and on December 4, 1828, he was elected honorary secretary. His first act in this capacity was to establish an annual exhibition of specimens of the manufactures and products of Ireland. Isaac Weld published several other books on Ireland and Great Britain, illustrated with his own drawings. Of these, his Statistical Survey of the County of Roscommon, over seven hundred pages long, published by the Royal Dublin Society in 1832, stands out.
Benjamin Wilkes was a British artist and amateur naturalist who lived in London in the 18th century.
Wilkes painted historical sites and portraits. Having been invited to a meeting of the Aurelian Society, where he first saw specimens of butterflies and moths, he became fascinated with insect observation and in his spare time began practicing entomology. He collected, studied, and sketched the various life cycles of scales, parasites, pupae, larvae, etc.
Wilkes published the first edition of his work, English Moths and Butterflies 1747-1749, assembled from 120 hand-colored engravings of insects. He also amassed a substantial collection of his own in London, which was open to the public.
Alexander Wilson was a Scottish-born American naturalist, ornithologist, illustrator, and poet.
Wilson emigrated from Scotland to America in 1794, spent several years teaching in Philadelphia and New Jersey, and then became interested in studying native birds. He traveled extensively in the American wilderness and captured and studied over 300 different birds, including several previously unknown. He made his own drawings and detailed descriptions, supported by reading scientific literature.
The results of his research were published under the title American Ornithology in eight volumes beginning in 1808. The ninth volume was published after his death in August 1813. One of the first subscribers was President Thomas Jefferson. Alexander Wilson was a member of the Society of Artists of the United States and the American Philosophical Society. The Wilson Ornithological Society is named in his honor, and a monument is erected in Abbey Close, Paisley. Several species of birds are named in his honor.
