Stunning paintings of butterflies by two Australian teenage sisters, from an era when women had no formal artistic or scientific opportunity, which sparked one of the most heartening triumphs of conservation and rewilding a century after their death. Meet Harriet and Helena Scott.
Stunning 19th-century illustrations of otherworldly marine creatures from the world’s first scientific effort to bring public awareness and awe to the Great Barrier Reef.
Elizabeth Blackwell is 29. The year is 1736. Her husband is in debtor’s prison and she has a small child to feed at home. What does she do? She turns desperation into inspiration, learning botany and painting an exquisite encyclopedia of medicinal plants: A Curious Herbal.
The stunning natural history illustrations of 18th-century artist Sarah Stone, who began painting at seventeen, in an era when the doors of both art and science were formally closed to women.
Margaret Gatty’s stunning drawings of seaweed, which offered Victorian women an unexpected entry-point into science.
The illustrated story of how a 17th-century woman forever changed the course of science through art.
This fossil might be the world’s earliest flowering life. Shortly thereafter, bees gave flowers their colors.
Beatrix Potter, mycologist – for the beloved children’s book author’s birthday, her little-known scientific studies and illustrations of mushrooms.
Absolutely gorgeous Victorian illustrations of owls, along with the science of how they got the familiar “owl-face.”
Another treat from Julia Rothman’s Nature Anatomy ˆ– a glorious illustrated love letter to our world and its wonders. More here.
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For more ideas on expanding your learning horizons, check out Noodle.
Peek inside the American Museum of Natural History’s massive and varied collection, then revisit 500 years of rare scientific illustrations from the museum’s manuscripts.
Louis Renard’s stunning 18th-century drawings of fish specimens, found in this magnificent collection of 500 years of rare science illustrations from the American Museum of Natural History archives.