Sarah Finn

Sarah Finn

@romanceofbooks.bsky.social

Special Collections Librarian / Print Historian Fascinated by the history of scientific illustration. Documenting natural history books I encounter in my research 📚🦋

1,177 Followers 1,530 Following 362 Posts Joined Nov 2024
2 days ago
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Seashells from ‘Deliciae naturae selectae: oder, Auserlesenes naturalien-cabinet, welches aus den drey reichen der natur zeight, was von curiösen liebhabern aufbehalten und gesammelt zu werden verdienet’ by Georg Wolfgang Knorr. Nuremberg, 1766-67.

Library of Congress.

#naturalhistory #sciart

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3 days ago
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Papaver somniferum, commonly known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, from Köhler’s “Medizinal-Pflanzen” Atlas, Gera-Untermhaus, Fr. Eugen Köhler, 1887. Illustrated by W. Muller.

#botanicalart #scientificillustration #medizinalpflanzen #Papaversomniferum #poppies

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5 days ago
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‘Life Histories of American Insects’ by Clarence Moores Weed, New York, 1897.

From my personal collection 📚🪲

#naturalhistory #publishersbinding #sciart #insectart

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6 days ago

Anna Maria and her sister Frances Reed created the one hundred and forty detailed, hand-colored mushroom lithographs.

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6 days ago
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Geastrum, or Earthstar mushroom, from Anna Maria Hussey’s ‘Illustrations of British mycology’ Published in London: Reeve, Benham and Reeve, 1849-55.

I saw this at UW-Madison Special Collections.

#hernaturalhistory #Geastrum #earthstar

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1 week ago
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Moth from Maria Sybilla Merian’s ‘Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium.’ Amsterdam: Gerard Valck, 1705.

I saw this at the Natural History Museum in London @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social.

#MariaSibyllaMerian #naturalhistory #insectart #sciart

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1 week ago
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Pigeon from “Illustrirtes Mustertauben-Buch” by Gustav Prütz and illustrated by Christian Förster. Hamburg: J. F. Richter, 1884-1886.

#pigeons #birdart #chromolithography #pigeonart #naturalhistory #sciart

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1 week ago
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Eclipse of the Moon from "Atlas of Astronomy" by Alexander Keith Johnston.

Published by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh, 1855.

#AtlasofAstronomy #lunareclipse #astronomy #celestial #astronomychart #sciart

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1 week ago
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Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) from Jean Baptiste Audebert’s ‘Histoire Naturelle des Singes et des Makis.’ Paris: Desray, 1800.

I saw this book at the University of Chicago’s Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections.

#naturalhistory #monkeyart

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1 week ago

These are both so gorgeous! Thanks for sharing.

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1 week ago
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Crocus for the last day of February. Illustrated by Frederick Edward Hulme for ‘The Garland of the Year, or, The Months: their poetry and flowers: with twelve chromographs of flowers, one for each month.’ London, 1873.

From my personal collection. 🌱

#LanguageofFlowers #chromolithograph #crocus

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2 weeks ago
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Flowers from ‘Les fleurs animées’ or ‘The Flowers Personified,’ illustrated by French caricaturist J. J. Grandville. First published in 1847. This is a later 1867 edition published in Paris by Garnier Frères.

From my personal collection 📚🌷💐

#botanicalillustration #rarebooks

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2 weeks ago
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Caterpillars 🐛 from ‘Archives De l’Histoire Des Insectes.’ Publiées En Allemand par Jean Gaspar Fuessly. Winterthour: J. Ziegler, 1794.

UW-Madison Special Collections Library.

#scientificillustration #Caterpillars #insectart #Caterpillarart

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2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
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Paradoxical frog (Pseudis paradoxa) and horned frog (Ceratophrys cornuta?) from 'Pantologia. A New Cyclopædia' by John Mason Good, Olinthus Gregory, and Newton Bosworth. London, 1813. Illustrations by Sydenham Edwards.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Special Collections.

#naturalhistory #frogart

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2 weeks ago
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Echinoderms from ‘Zoologischer Hand-Atlas zum Schulgebrauch und Selbstunterricht’ by German Zoologist Hermann Burmeister. Second edition. Published in Berlin, Druck und Verlag von Georg Reimer, 1860.

#sciart #naturalhistory #Echinoderm #starfish

20 4 0 0
3 weeks ago
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Horses from ‘Johnson’s Household Book of Nature, Containing Full and Interesting Descriptions of the Animal Kingdom,’ edited by Hugh Craig. New York, 1880.

#naturalhistory #horses #horseart #lithography #yearofthehorse #animalart

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3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
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‘An Illustrated Natural History of British Butterflies and Moths’ by Edward Newman. Figures engraved by George Willis and engraved by John Kirchner. London, c1870s.

#insectart #naturalhistory #publishersbindings

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3 weeks ago

It reads “See to the fight the gentle warriors move, And dart with harmless force the shafts of love !”

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3 weeks ago
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Garden snails and their love darts 🎯🐌💘 from ‘The Naturalist’s Miscellany’ by George Shaw, published by Elizabeth Nodder and illustrated by Frederick Polydore Nodder, 1789-1813. This is from the 1814-1817 edition.

UW-Madison Special Collections @uwmadspec.

#snails #naturalhistory #animalart

34 7 1 1
1 month ago
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Cobaea scandens from ‘Fragmenta botanica, figuris coloratis illustrata’ by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin. Viennae, Austriae: Typis Mathiae Andreae Schmidt, typogr. Universit., 1809.

UW-Madison Special Collections.

#botanicalart #flowerillustration #Cobaeascandens

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1 month ago
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Beetles and other bugs by G. Baldassini from Volume One of the Italian art portfolio series ‘Modelli D’arte Decorativa,’ published by Bestetti and Tumminelli in the 1910s.

UW-Milwaukee Special Collections.

#beetleart #insectart #coleoptera

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1 month ago
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Hand-colored copper engraving of fish from the 2nd edition of ‘Poissons, ecrevisses et crabes, de diverses couleurs et figures extraordinaires …’ by Louis Renard, published in Amsterdam in 1754.

I saw this when I visited the National Library of Scotland.

#naturalhistory #sciart #fishart

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1 month ago
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1 month ago
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Flowers and butterflies from ‘Collection de fleurs, d’oiseaux d’insectes.’ Drawn and colored by various students of the Royal School of Sorèze. Manuscript, 1783-1789.

I saw this at Harvard’s Houghton Library.

#naturalhistory #botanicalart #Lepidoptera #insectart

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1 month ago
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1 month ago
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Bats 🦇 by Karl Joseph Brodtmann from ‘Naturhistorische Bilder-Gallerie aus dem Thierreiche.’ Leipzig, 1816.

I saw this book at UW-Madison Special Collections Library.

#naturalhistory #batart #batillustration #sciart

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1 month ago
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“Le Coq de roche jeune âge” by Jacques Barraband for ‘Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis et des rolliers, suivie de celle des toucans et des barbus’ by François Levaillant. Paris: Chez Denné le jeune, 1806.

University of Chicago Special Collections.

#naturalhistory #birdart #ornithology

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1 month ago
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