An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2024 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

16061 entries, 14144 authors and 1947 subjects. Updated: November 17, 2024

ABBOT, John

2 entries
  • 7768

The natural history of the rarer lepidopterous insects of Georgia. Including their systematic characters, the particulars of their several metamorphoses, and the plants on which they feed. Collected from the observations of Mr. John Abbot, many years resident in that country, by James Edward Smith.

London: Printed by T. Bensley for J. Edwards, 1797.

The earliest illustrated monograph on the butterflies and moths of North America. Text in English and French. 104 hand-colored plates. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › United States , COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › United States › American South, NATURAL HISTORY, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › Georgia, ZOOLOGY › Arthropoda › Entomology, ZOOLOGY › Arthropoda › Entomology › Lepidoptera, ZOOLOGY › Illustration
  • 13095

John Abbot and William Swainson: Art, science, and commerce in nineteenth-century natural history illustration. By Janice Neri, Tara Nummedal, John V. Calhoun.

Tuscaloosa & London: University of Alabama Press, 2019.

"During his lifetime (1751-ca. 1840), English-born naturalist and artist John Abbot rendered more than 4,000 natural history illustrations and profoundly influenced North American entomology, as he documented many species in the New World long before they were scientifically described. For sixty-five years, Abbot worked in Georgia to advance knowledge of the flora and fauna of the American South by sending superbly mounted specimens and exquisitely detailed illustrations of insects, birds, butterflies, and moths, on commission, to collectors and scientists all over the world. Between 1816 and 1818, Abbot completed 104 drawings of insects on their native plants for English naturalist and patron William Swainson (1789-1855). Both Abbot and Swainson were artists, naturalists, and collectors during a time when natural history and the sciences flourished. Separated by nearly forty years in age, Abbot and Swainson were members of the same international communities and correspondence networks upon which the study of nature was based during this period. The relationship between these two men-who never met in person-is explored in John Abbot and William Swainson: Art, Science, and Commerce in Nineteenth-Century Natural History Illustration. This volume also showcases, for the first time, the complete set of original, full-color illustrations discovered in 1977 in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand. Originally intended as a companion to an earlier survey of insects from Georgia, the newly rediscovered Turnbull manuscript presents beetles, grasshoppers, butterflies, moths, and a wasp. Most of the insects are pictured with the flowering plants upon which Abbot thought them to feed. Abbot's journal annotations about the habits and biology of each species are also included, as are nomenclature updates for the insect taxa. Today, the Turnbull drawings illuminate the complex array of personal and professional concerns that informed the field of natural history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries" (publisher).



Subjects: NATURAL HISTORY › History of Natural History, NATURAL HISTORY › Illustration, ZOOLOGY › Arthropoda › Entomology