Loving Insects : John Abbot's Drawings and Natural History Collecting in the Atlantic World, 1760s-1840s

Beth Tobin

ISBN 10: 0820373575 / ISBN 13: 9780820373577

Published by University Of Georgia Press Jul 2026, 2026

About this Item

Neuware - John Abbot's love of insects manifested itself in his exquisite watercolor drawings of butterflies, moths, beetles, cicadas, dragonflies, wasps, and spiders. Considered one of the finest illustrated entomological publications of its era, The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia combined those watercolors with Abbot's terse notes that described his encounters with these creatures. Born in London in 1751, Abbot journeyed to the American South in 1773 to collect and draw insects and birds for natural history collectors in Britain. Although he had had ambitions as a young man to join the ranks of London's natural history illustrators, he never returned to Britain. Instead, Abbot lived most of his long life in Georgia, where he made thousands of watercolor drawings of insects and supplied thousands of insect specimens to his British, European, and American clients. Despite his accomplishments as a naturalist and an artist, he is little known today. Loving Insects aims to rectify this omission by detailing Abbot's activities as a natural history artist, a specimen hunter, and a naturalist and by claiming a space for him as a major figure in the story of early American natural history.

Seller Inventory # 9780820373577

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Loving Insects : John Abbot's Drawings and Natural History Collecting in the Atlantic World, 1760s-1840s
• Publisher: University Of Georgia Press Jul 2026
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0820373575
• ISBN 13: 9780820373577
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 283W x 213H x 23D millimeters 283 millimeters width by 213 millimeters height by 23 millimeters depth
• Weight: 1234 grams

About this title

Synopsis

John Abbot’s love of insects manifested itself in his exquisite watercolor drawings of butterflies, moths, beetles, cicadas, dragonflies, wasps, and spiders; in his terse notes that described his encounters with these creatures; and in a spectacular book with the unprepossessing title The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia (London, 1798), considered to be one of the finest illustrated entomological publications of its era. Born in London in 1751, Abbot journeyed to the American South in 1774 to collect and draw insects and birds for natural history collectors in Britain. Although he had had ambitions as a young man to join the ranks of London’s natural history illustrators, he never returned to Britain, living most of his long life in Georgia, where he made thousands of watercolor drawings of insects and supplied thousands of insect specimens to his British, European, and American clients. Despite his accomplishments as a naturalist and an artist, he is little known today. This book aims to rectify this omission by detailing his activities as a natural history artist, a specimen hunter, and a naturalist, and by claiming a space for him as a major figure in the history of early American natural history.

About the Author

BETH FOWKES TOBIN is professor emerita of English and women’s studies at the University of Georgia. She is the author and/or editor of several books, including The Duchess’s Shells: Natural History Collecting in the Age of Cook’s Voyages and two award-winning books, Picturing Imperial Power: Colonial Subjects in Eighteenth-Century British Painting and Colonizing Nature: The Tropics in British Arts and Letters, 1760–1830. She lives and writes in Chicago.