The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale's Lost Manuscript
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale's Lost Manuscript Details
Review “Titian Peale’s lost illustrations are finally seeing the light of day after a metamorphosis lasting nearly 200 years.” (The New York Times) Read more About the Author Kenneth Haltman is H. Russell Pitman Professor of Art History at the University of Oklahoma. David A. Grimaldi is Curator at the American Museum of Natural History and the author of Evolution of the Insects. Ellen V. Futter is President of The American Museum of Natural History. The American Museum of Natural History in New York is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions. Read more
Reviews
On 25 August the New York Times devoted more than half a page in its Tuesday "Science Times" to heralding the imminent release of "The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale's Lost Manuscript." That review was positive and noted that the volume was "mainly an art volume." Even so, the illustrated review could not adequately convey what a very extraordinary book the American Museum of Natural History, working with the top-flight art publisher Abrams, has offered us at a quite reasonable price.The book's several hundred color illustrations--lost to public view for 130 years after the death of Peale--are the star of the book. Also attractive are roughly a dozen page reproductions of Peale's field notebooks and the two pages of a "Prospectus" he produced, unsuccessfully it should be noted, to sell his study of the butterflies. Lifting the book beyond a simply beautiful catalogue of butterfly and caterpillar paintings is new material added by experts, chief among them Kenneth Haltman, who provided an excellent 13-page introduction. This essay covers a history of Peale's butterfly study and a biography of the artist, as well as an assessment of his work as a naturalist and the scientific quality of the butterfly illustrations. The "Butterflies of North America" will appeal in the first instance to lovers of butterflies and caterpillars. But it offers as well valuable information regarding the plants on which the insects feed, and it should inspire all who rejoice in the natural world.
