Monday, February 17, 2020

Online Trove of Natural History Images

From Tortoises, terrapins, and turtles,
London, Paris, and Frankfort :H. Sotheran, J. Baer & co.,1872.
Biodiversity Heritage Library is a free, online archive of more than 150,000 high resolution science-based renderings of insects, birds, flowers, and shells. You can scan through a vast collection of natural history artwork of fauna and flora, mostly created before the era of photography.
------
Biodiversity Heritage Library on Flickr
Smithsonian Magazine: "You Can Now Download 150,000 Free Illustrations of the Natural World"
at

4 comments:

  1. RajaFebruary 17, 2020 at 8:32 PM

    These images painstakingly created by naturalists for scientific purposes can be rightly considered as art. The settings, and surrounding colouration are to mind aesthetic choices and parallel modern photography in magazines such as the National Geographic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. THE ONLY TRUE HACKER IN THE WORLD ®February 18, 2020 at 2:30 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. nmsgwatercolorsFebruary 18, 2020 at 1:39 PM

    How amazing!
    So can you copy these in paintings you make to sell? I don't mean copy the whole plate as is, but say I need a turtle in a fairytale scene - can I copy one of these and stick it somewhere in my picture?

    ReplyDelete
  4. James GurneyFebruary 18, 2020 at 4:01 PM

    nmsgwatercolors, yes, there should be no issue in copying these, as everything before about 1923 is in the public domain.

    ReplyDelete

Due to a high level of spam we must moderate comments. Please identify yourself by name or social media handle so we know you're not a 'bot.'