Hawksbill sea turtle
Date
1731
Creator
Mark Catesby (1683 - 1749, British) , Naturalist
Object type
Library reference
18894
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 265mm
width (print): 355mm
width (print): 355mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Zoological study of a hawksbill sea turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, referred to here as Testudo caretta, shown in left profile, on a sandy plain, beside a nest of eggs.
Written in the associated description: 'This Kind of Turtle receives its name from the Form of its Mouth, resembling that of an Hawk's beak; the upper Jaw hanging more over the under Jaw than in other Kinds. As the green Turtle is most valued for the food it affords, this is next in Esteem for the usefulness of its Shell, so well known in Mechanick Uses'.
Plate 39 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733.
Written in the associated description: 'This Kind of Turtle receives its name from the Form of its Mouth, resembling that of an Hawk's beak; the upper Jaw hanging more over the under Jaw than in other Kinds. As the green Turtle is most valued for the food it affords, this is next in Esteem for the usefulness of its Shell, so well known in Mechanick Uses'.
Plate 39 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist 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 whom 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 whom 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