The Art of Biodiversity: Artists & Naturalists, 1700-1900

Between 1700 and 1900, an art movement unveiled nature's great secret: the global diversity of life-forms. Centuries before the word "biodiversity" existed, naturalists began to glimpse the reality that lay behind Charles Darwin's lyrical evocation of nature's "endless forms most beautiful." The naturalists recruited artists to create a family album of Earth, with every picture a precise drawing of a species of plant or animal.

The Art of Biodiversityrecounts key chapters in the history of s...