19th Century Lithographs of the Extraordinary Mammals of Australia
John Gould’s Mammals of Australia (1845–63) In 1838, the English ornithologist John Gould set sail for Australia with his …
The Public Domain Review
A Fanciful Collection of 18th Century Illustrations of Animals
From 1749 to his death in 1788, the Comte de Buffon composed thirty-six volumes of his monumental Histoire naturelle, générale …
12 Beautiful 19th Century Watercolors of Wildlife
The Bestiarium of Aloys Zötl (1831-1887) These beautiful watercolors come from the Austrian painter Aloys Zötl’s Bestiarium, a series of …
10 Intricate Jellyfish Illustrations from the 19th Century
The German biologist Ernst Haeckel was fascinated by medusae, the umbrella-shaped animals commonly called jellyfish. For Haeckel, whose imagination was …
10 Stunning 19th Century Great Barrier Reef Illustrations and Photos
Images from William Saville-Kent’s The Great Barrier Reef of Australia (1893) While naming and arranging corals in the Natural History …
20 Exquisite 16th Century Watercolors of Medicinal Plants
These wonderful full-page watercolor illustrations are from a 16th-century edition of Pedanius Dioscorides’s work on herbal medicine, De Materia Medica. …
These 19th Century Illustrations Depict the Beauty of Bugs
This article and collection of exquisite insect illustrations by Jean-Henri Fabre is from The Public Domain Review, an online journal …