Mark Catesby’s Natural History of North America
The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1731–1749)
The English pioneer naturalist and artist Mark Catesby FRS (1682–1749) produced the first major illustrated record of the flora and fauna of Britain’s North American colonies – Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. He based his engraved illustrations on the watercolours he drew from nature (which now feature in the Royal Collection).
His work, begun in 1729 but not finished until 1747, is important both as a primary natural history resource and as a unique piece of American artistic heritage. No comparable record of the flora and fauna of North America was undertaken again until the first decades of the 19th Century.
Now all 263 historic watercolours have been published for the first time as hand-printed facsimiles.
