Loving Insects: John Abbot's Drawings and Natural History Collecting in the Atlantic World, 1760s-1840s

John Abbot’s love of insects manifested itself in his exquisite watercolor drawings of butterflies, moths, beetles, cicadas, dragonflies, wasps, and spiders. Considered one of the finest illustrated entomological publications of its era, The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia combined those watercolors with Abbot’s terse notes that described his encounters with these creatures. Born in London in 1751, Abbot journeyed to the American South in 1773 to collect and dr...