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Maryland Historical Society
Library of Maryland History
201 W. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-685-3750
Fax: 410-385-2105
E-mail: library @mdhs.org
Buy the Book
Maryland
History In Prints: 1752-1900
by Laura Rice |
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The Baltimore Bird
From The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands...,
vol.1
Mark Catesby
1754
Engraving, hand colored
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Englishman Mark Catesby, a botanist by training, devoted much of his life
to documenting the flora and fauna of eastern America in the early 1700s.
A keen observer, Catesby recorded what he knew of his subjects' behavior,
and pictured animals and insects in their natural habitats, an innovation
which inspired later scientific illustrators such as John James Audubon.
Although purely descriptive, his work was a major contribution to European
knowledge of the new world, and provided the basis for countless studies
on both continents well into the nineteenth century. Although Catesby's
audience was largely confined to the scientific community in London, his
plates also attracted the attention of the public, eager for visual information
about this exotic, unexplored territory.
Catesby here describes the "Baltimore Bird," or Oriole, as "This Gold-colour'd
bird I have only seen in Virginia and Maryland; there being
none of them in Carolina. It is said to have its Name from the Lord
Baltimore's
Coat of Arms, which are Paly of six Topaz and Diamond, a bend, counterchang'd.It's
nest is built in a particular Manner, supported only by two Twigs fix'd
to the Verge of the Nest, and hanging most commonly at the Extremity of
a Bough."
Catesby died in December 1749. This volume is a posthumous edition
issued by George Edwards, using Catesby's original plates.
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