Amy Bell Research

What is national history illustration?

National history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study.

Nation history illustration to me focuses on endangered animals, animals in their natural environment and habitat. I also believe a huge part of the subject is human impact on the natural world, we have devastating effects, the smartest species man is destroying the planet.

BBC Wildlife magazine article

I looked through numerous magazines, I scanned a few I looked at for development purposes.

My final article piece

I decided to go with the hare article because in the past I have focussed on larger animals such as tigers, snow leopards, lions etc., so I wanted to try something different and I thought brown hares would be a good piece to start with.

The original article.

My image of boxing hares, I wanted to add a little humour so I drew the hares with boxing gloves on.

I then messed on with photoshop a little bit to try and see how I would like my final piece to fit into the article, I wanted to see all the different effects I would try.

I really like the effect on this image. Gives the image a hint of humour, it gives the image a sense of a fairy tale, hares boxing in boxing gloves.

The Great And Good Of The Natural World Research.

I found this piece of work really interesting because I only had heard of one or two of the illustrators on the list, so it was nice to learn about how each had an impact in national history illustration.

Matthew Flinders1774 -1814

Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) was born in Lincolnshire in England. Flinders joined the navy where he trained as a navigator. Flinders wanted to become a sailor and explorer after reading the book Robinson Crusoe. He met George Bass, a ship's doctor, when they were both sailing to Australia on the Reliance. They became very good friends and were to go on many journeys of exploration together. Flinders was to first man to circumnavigate Australia. It was Flinders who suggested the name "Australia" and it was adopted in 1824. Several places have been named after him such as Flinders Island.In 1796 Bass and Flinders explored the coastline south of Sydney using a tiny open boat about 2.5 metres long. It was called the Tom Thumb. As they were sailing along the southern coast of New South Wales, they were met by a party of fierce-looking aborigines. They decided to calm things down by trying to amuse the aborigines. Flinders pulled out a pair of scissors and started cutting the aborigines hair, while Bass and a servant boy called Martin made the boat ready. Then Flinders leapt aboard the flimsy boat and the three companions sailed away, leaving the aborigines on the shore.Flinders had been doing some exploring on his own and believed that he could prove that Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) was an island. Bass and Flinders convinced Governor Hunter that another expedition should be set up with a bigger boat and more men. In 1798, Bass and Flinders sailed the Norfolk through Bass Strait and round Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), proving that it was an island. This was to be their last voyage together as Bass disappeared mysteriously in the Pacific Ocean.Flinders returned to England in 1800. While he was here, he became married. The British government asked him to make an even bigger voyage - right around Australia. Leaving his wife, Anne, behind in England, he sailed back to Australia in the Investigator. In 1802, Flinders sailed north from Sydney, passing through Torres Strait and across the Gulf of Carpentaria. He went right round Australia, becoming the first man to circumnavigate Australia. He called in at Timor on the way, arriving back in Sydney in June, 1803.Flinders was captured by the French on the island of Mauritius in 1803 until 1810. They claimed that he was a spy. He was later allowed to return to England. When he reached London, he was 39. but looked much older. His health began to fail and he died young, like Bass. Although very ill, he completed a book on his travels called A Voyage to Terra Australis. He died on the day that his book was published. Flinders proved that Australia was not a series of islands, but one island. His charts were so accurate, that they were used for many years after his death.

I got my information from http://www.davidreilly.com/australian_explorers/flinders/flinders.htm

James Cook1728 1779

Cook was an 18th century explorer and navigator whose achievements in mapping the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia radically changed western perceptions of world geography. As one of the very few men in the 18th century navy to rise through the ranks, Cook was particularly sympathetic to the needs of ordinary sailors. http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/content-information-types/history/captain-james-cook/index.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cook_captain_james.shtml

Sir Joseph Banks1743 1820

Banks was a British explorer and naturalist who, as long-time president of the Royal Society, became known for his promotion of science. Banks was interested in plants that could be used for practical purposes and be introduced into other countries for possible commercial use. After he became president of the Royal Society in 1778, he promoted the career of many scientists and in his capacity as director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, sent many botanists abroad to find new plants and extend the Gardens' collection.

http://www.nndb.com/people/077/000100774/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/banks_sir_joseph.shtml

Thomas Bewick1753 1828

He worked with Ralph Beilby engraving on silver and gold. Bewick eventually took over the Beilby workshop and is now most famous for his wood-engraving. He was a countryman who worked directly from nature in watercolours. He later made these drawings into wood engravings for his books of animals and birds. Today, Bewicks work is known and admired all over the world.

http://www.cheviotschallenge.org.uk/PopUps/ThomasBewick.htm

http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/laing/northernspirit/thomas-bewick/

Ferdinand Bauer1760 1826

Ferdinand Bauer, natural history artist and naturalist was a man of special talent who specialised in the drawing of plants and animals. He is deeply admired by zoological and botanical artists and historians of natural history.

I could not find any relevant image for Bauer.http://www.abc.net.au/navigators/naturalists/bauer.htm

Audubon1785 1851At the age of 18, he was sent to America, in part to escape conscription into the Emperor Napoleons army. He lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied and drew birds, and met his wife, Lucy Bakewell. While there, he conducted the first known bird-banding experiment in North America, tying strings around the legs of Eastern Phoebes; he learned that the birds returned to the very same nesting sites each year. http://library.sc.edu/spcoll/audubon/audubon7.html

http://www.audubon.org/john-james-audubon

Walter Henry Bates1825 1892

Henry Bates is famous for his contributions to the taxonomy of Neotropical scarabs, among other things. He and Alfred Russel Wallace left England in 1842 to explore and collect insects in the Amazon basin in what was to become incredibly valuable explorations and insights into natural history and evolution for the both of them. Bates spent 11 years in Amazonia amassing large collections of insects that were sent back to museums and collectors in Europe.http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/chronob/BATE1825.htm

http://www.unl.edu/museum/research/entomology/workers/HBates.htm

Charles Darwin1809 1882

Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the natural world. He proposed a theory of evolution occurring by the process of natural selection. The animals (or plants) best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the characteristics which helped them survive to their offspring. Gradually, the species changes over time. http://www.victorianweb.org/science/darwin/index.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml

Gerald Durrell1925 1995

At the age of 21 he inherited 3,000 with which he financed, organised and led his first animal collecting expedition to the British Cameroons. For the next ten years he travelled to many lesser known parts of the world, acquiring animals for the major British zoological gardens.

I did get an image off google but I can't find it.http://www.durrell.org/About/The-people/Durrell--the-people/Gerald-Durrell/

Peter Scott1909 1989

He had been a founder of the World Wildlife Fund, a founder of several wetlands bird sanctuaries in Britain, and an influence on international conservation.http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/about_us/history/sir_peter_scott.cfm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Scott_%28conservationist%29

David Attenborough1926 present

Sir David Attenborough's distinguished career in broadcasting now spans more than 50 years. It began in 1952 when he joined BBC Television Talks Department at Alexandra Palace. In 1954 he launched the first of his famous Zoo Quest series which, over the next 10 years, took him to the wilder parts of the world. In between times, his programmes included political broadcasts, archaeological quizzes, short stories, gardening and religious programmes.

http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/passtheremote/2008/07/index.html?page=27

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programmes/who/david_attenborough.shtml

Jane Goodall1934 present

, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.http://devayankumarsarkar.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-influential-women.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall

Dian Fossey1932 1985

After reaching Africa she was led to believe that the renowned paleoanthropologist, Dr. Louis Leakey was in Nairobi. Her experience of the Congo was quickly impressionable on Dian and wanted to further her knowledge of the mountain gorilla and to experience even seeing one.After coming in contact with Dr. Leakey, she expressed her interest in his work and the work of the gorillas as influenced by George Schaller. Little if not any impressed with her he told her to keep in touch after her brief visit.Following the visit, Dian and her guide stopped in the village of Kisoro and met up with a group of photographers heading up one of the volcanic mountains, Mt. Mikeno.This is where Dian saw her first sign of gorilla life of a sleeping area they had been at the night before. The experience would determine the future course of her life."the woman who lives alone on the mountain" is remembered throughout the world for her heroic struggle to preserve, protect and study the mountain gorilla. http://intlawgrrls.blogspot.com/search/label/Dian%20Fossey

http://gorillafund.org/page.aspx?pid=379

Richard South1846 1932

He was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.He wrote A list of butterflies collected by CaptainF.M.Bailey in western China, South-Eastern Tibet, and the Mishmi Hills.

I couldn't find a relevant image for Richard so I made my own up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_South

Richard Fitter1913 2005

He was a British naturalist and author. He was an expert on wild flowers and the author of several guides for amateur naturalists.

I couldn't find a relevant image for Richard either so I had to make up a drawing without showing his face because I didn't know what he looked like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._S._R._Fitter

Hamsterley Forest Leaflet

Random information I came across whilst doing research.

2000 hectares of mixed woodland lying between the Wear and Tees valleys on the edge of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Hamsterley is a delightful oasis of broadleaved and coniferous woodland, sprawling along the sides of a sheltered valley. Visitors to Hamsterley have no shortage of options when it comes to activities. With waymarked walks, bike hire, cycle routes and horse riding trails, all levels of fitness and ability are catered for.

Art Work

Horse riding

Cycling

The forest

All Hamsterley forest images are from google images.