Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10484
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The ‘little sparrow’ and the ‘purple bind-weed of Carolina’
Date
1731
Creator
Mark Catesby (1683 - 1749, British) , Naturalist
Object type
Library reference
18894
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 350mm
width (print): 265mm
width (print): 265mm
Subject
Content object
Description
‘Passer culus’, the little sparrow, and ‘Convolvulus carolinensis angusto sagittato folio, flore amplissimo purpureo, radice crassa’, the purple bind-weed of Carolina (Catesby’s identifications; modern scientific names: Spizella passerina, the chipping sparrow; Ipomoea sagittata, the saltmarsh morning-glory). A giant leopard moth, Hypercompe scribonia, can also be seen feeding on the flower (not mentioned in Catesby’s text).
Plate 35 from volume I of The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands by Mark Catesby (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733.
Plate 35 from volume I of The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands by Mark Catesby (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733.
Object history
The Natural History was originally published in 10 parts, intended to be bound in 2 volumes. It was the earliest western scientific description of the flora and fauna of North America, and its copper plates were etched and hand-coloured by Catesby himself.
Catesby’s trips to North America were funded by a group of sponsors, many of were colonial governors, charged with managing the British Empire’s territories, and their support of Catesby’s research can be read as an exercise in colonial control. As The Natural History’s parts were issued it also became important as a reference text to naturalists attempting to order the natural world according to the ambitious taxonomic systems that characterized the mid-18th century.
Catesby’s trips to North America were funded by a group of sponsors, many of were colonial governors, charged with managing the British Empire’s territories, and their support of Catesby’s research can be read as an exercise in colonial control. As The Natural History’s parts were issued it also became important as a reference text to naturalists attempting to order the natural world according to the ambitious taxonomic systems that characterized the mid-18th century.
Associated place