Past Exhibits: > Drawn from Nature
Drawn from Nature
The Maximus Department is home to a large collection of antique natural history prints. These works on paper trace the evolution of early science and discovery of the natural world by the most important illustrators of the past 400 years. The art that accompanied early natural histories was a visual language meant to share knowledge. It gives us a glimpse into history when the world’s flora and fauna were being described for the first time. Artists made images with a purpose that was clearly separate from that of cataloging and classifying. In an increasingly digital world, photography plays its role but cannot replace an artist’s eye and depth of observation. Our Museum is one of the few places in the world to have a gallery dedicated to the display and interpretation of scientific illustration — a combination of history, nature, and art.
