The Great Naturalists
The little-known history of natural history-that is, how the first naturalists observed and catalogued their world, how they grappled with unanswered questions, and how the sciences of geology, biology, ecology and paleontology developed over three centuries-is wonderfully illuminated in this volume from the Natural History Museum of London's Huxley. Examining 39 naturalists, Huxley assigns each subject-from ancient Greece's Aristotle to America's first botanist, Asa Gray-his or her own biographer (many also from London's Natural History Museum), who provide a brief but detailed life story and a summation of scientific contributions. While some subjects are well-known-John James Audubon, Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin among them-many will be unfamiliar: John Ray, labeled the "English Aristotle," first defined the concept of "species"; Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovered micro-organisms (using Robert Hooke's microscope); and Mary Anning, born to destitution in Regency England, sparked a revolution in scientific thought with her fossil excavations. These naturalists were often excellent figure and watercolor artists, and this volume is heavily illustrated with striking, full-color reproductions from their publications (and occasional portraits); especially revelatory are renderings of now extinct species, like Audubon's glorious painting of the Carolina parakeet.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.