Alexander Francis Lydon (1836–1917)

An English watercolour artist, illustrator and engraver of natural history and landscapes. He worked for Benjamin Fawcett the printer, to whom he had been apprenticed from an early age. He collaborated on a large number of works with the Rev. Francis Orpen Morris who wrote the text.

August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof  (1705- 1759)

A German miniature painter, naturalist and entomologist. With his accurate, heavily detailed images of insects he was recognised as an important figure in modern entomology.

He spent many years studying local natural history. In 1740 - based on the specimens of his own remarkable collection - Rösel began to publish the “Der Monatlich...”, a sumptuous work - that was financed by him - that can be considered one of the most important German artwork on insects of 18th century. It was so a meticulous work that many descriptions of species of insects made by Carl Linnaeus are based on the images drawn by Rösel.

Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny (1806–1876)

A French botanist and geologist specializing in the Tertiary of France. He was the younger brother of French naturalist and South American explorer, Alcide d'Orbigny. At the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, d'Orbigny identified many of the flowering plant species returned to France from his brother's natural history collecting journeys through South America.

Rex Brasher (1869-1960)

A Connecticut wildlife artist who from 1928 to 1932 produced a limited edition set of books entitled The Birds and Trees of North America. The work was comprised of up to 867 prints after Brasher's original paintings, painted from 1895 to 1828 and covering 1200 species and subspecies of North American birds.

Unable to afford color printing, Brasher is credited with having done all of the handcoloring (using airbrush and stencil) of the black-and-white prints -- coloring about 90,000 prints in four years. Brasher's niece Marie took on the responsibility of the text while other family members helped with marketing and sales.

Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper (1742 – 1810)

A German entomologist that devoted himself to the study of nature and the preparation of manuscripts relating to natural history.

He was the author of a series of booklets entitled Die Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen which were published between 1776 and 1807. These were richly illustrated; minerals, birds, plants, shells and insects being presented on 438 hand-coloured plates.

He published between 1829 and 1830 a new edition of the publications Die europäischen Schmetterlinge and Die ausländischen Schmetterlinge with Toussaint de Charpentier.

Edward Donovan (1768–1837)

An Anglo-Irish writer, natural history illustrator, and amateur zoologist that is well known for his naturalist prints. 

Donovan was an avid collector of natural history specimens purchased mainly at auctions of specimens from voyages of exploration and a very successful author of a number of natural history titles. Such titles include: Natural History of British Birds (1792–97), Natural History of British Insects (1792–1813), Natural History of British Fishes (1802–08) and the two-volume Descriptive Excursions through South Wales and Monmouthshire in the Year 1804, and the Four Preceding Summers (1805) and the short-lived Botanical Review, or the Beauties of Flora (London, 1789–90).

He also wrote articles on Conchology, Entomology etc., made drawings and arranged the natural history plates in Rees's Cyclopædia and undertook commissions for private albums of his botanical artwork.

Benjamin Fawcett (1808 - 1893)

An English nineteenth century woodblock color printer known for his professional relationships with Francis Orpen Morris and Alexander Francis Lydon. Morris wrote the text for books which were financed and printed by Fawcett, and were engraved by Lydon.

Hand-coloured wood engraving started with an accurate painting of the subject. This picture was then carved on a wooden block, standing proud in order to pick up the ink. The block was then placed in a printing press to give a black-and-white print, which was then hand-coloured. The wooden print blocks were carved with great attention detail. Pear and boxwood were sufficiently hard and fine-grained, making them durable and capable of showing fine detail. Most of the joint works of Fawcett and Lydon were published by Groombridge, of London.

Some of his publications include: A Natural History of British Birds and British Fresh-water Fishes.

Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville "F. E. Guerin" (1799 - 1874)

A French entomologist and author of many naturalist illustrated works, such as: Iconographie du Règne Animal de G. Cuvier 1829–1844.

Guérin-Méneville founded several journals: Magasin de zoologie, d’anatomie comparée et de paléontologie (1830), Revue zoologique par la Société cuviérienne (1838), Revue et Magasin de zoologie pure et appliquée (1849), and Revue de sériciculture (1863). He was editor of Dictionnaire Pittoresque d’Histoire Naturelle, published in Paris 1836–1839. Guérin-Méneville was elected president of the Société Entomologique de France for the year 1846.

John James Audubon (1785 – 1851; born Jean Rabin)

A notable American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter who was known for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon identified 25 new species.

Pancrace Bessa (1772-1846)

A French natural history artist, best known for his botanical illustrations. Bessa was a student of the great engraver Gerard van Spaendonck and worked alongside Pierre-Joseph Readout.

Bessa's favourite subjects were fruit and flowers, with occasional digressions to birds and mammals.

Bessa contributed to some of the most famous works of the time, including the masterpiece, Description des Plantes cultivees a Malmaison a Navarre, in which 9 illustrations are by Bessa & 54 by Redoute. 

Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier (1769 – 1832)

A French naturalist and zoologist that is referred to as the "father of paleontology." Cuvier was a major figure in natural sciences research in the early 19th century and was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils. His most famous work is Le Règne Animal (1817; English: The Animal Kingdom). 

Lorenz Oken (1779-1851)

A German transcendental naturalist, philosopher & physician that was influenced by Pythagorean mysticism, becoming a self-proclaimed pantheist. In his time, this German physician, philosopher, and mystic was considered a brilliant thinker by many Americans, including the New England transcendentalists. To Oken, God exhibited himself in nature, and when God meets man he meets himself, for man is a god created by God. 

Oken was a prolific & vocal writer, lecturer and theorist, publishing many philosophical treatises during his life. His masterpiece and lasting legacy to the world is the 13-volume "Naturgeschichte für alle Stände" (Natural History for all Social Ranks), first published in 1831. 

George Shaw (1751-1813)

A notable English botanist and zoologist that was initially a medical practitioner. He became the assistant lecturer in botany at Oxford University and keeper of the natural history department at the British Museum. He was a co-founder of the Linnean Society was a fellow of the Royal Society. He is also well known these days for the colored prints of animals he published in The Naturalist's Miscellany with Mr. Nodder.

Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet of Applegarth (1800 –1874)

A Scottish naturalist known for his editing of a long series of natural history books, The Naturalist's Library.

Jardine made natural history available to all levels of Victorian society by editing the hugely popular forty volumes of The Naturalist's Library (1833–1843) issued and published by his brother in law, the Edinburgh printer and engraver, William Home Lizars. The series was divided into four main sections: Ornithology (14 volumes), Mammalia (13 volumes), Entomology (7 volumes), and Ichthyology (6 volumes); each prepared by a leading naturalist. James Duncan wrote the insect volumes. The artists responsible for the illustrations included Edward Lear. The work was published in Edinburgh by W. H. Lizars. The frontispiece is a portrait of Pierre André Latreille.

His other publications included an edition of Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne, Illustrations of Ornithology (1825–1843), and an affordable edition of Alexander Wilson's Birds of America.

Jardine described of a number of bird species, alone or in conjunction with his friend Prideaux John Selby.

Johannes Zorn (1739 - 1799)

A German pharmacist, botanist and botanical illustrator who made extensive trips across Europe to collect medicinal plants, and between 1779 and 1790. He published 6 volumes of "Icones plantarum medicinalium" in Nuremberg in which he illustrated and described over 600 medicinal plants. Later in 1796 this was published as the six-volume "Afbeeldingen der Artseny-Gewassen met Derzelver Nederduitsche en Latynsche Beschryvingen" in Amsterdam by J. C. Sepp & Zoon.

He was passionate about the flora of the New World and published "Dreyhundert auserlesene amerikanische Gewachse" with 250 coloured plates, the majority after Jacquin's "Selectarum Stirpium Americanarum Historia".

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