REVIEW
Natural
Histories
400 Years of
Scientific Illustration
By Raphael Rosen
Contributor
SciArt has a deep provenance. Some of the
best examples aren’t found in fashionable Chelsea galleries or eclectic websites but in manuscripts that are hundreds of years old. And one
of the best places to see these is at the American Museum of Natural History in New York
City, in an exhibition called “Natural Histories:
400 Years of Scientific Illustration from the
Museum’s Library.”
On view through October 12th, 2014, the
show is a pared-down walk-through version
of a book with the same title edited by Tom
Baione, the Harold Boeschenstein Director
of the Department of Library Services at the
Museum. The 50 works in the show represent a
span of scientific inquiry reaching from 1550 to
the 1920s, a period that saw the rise of modern
science.
It’s no accident that the exhibition begins at
science’s birth. “The big message,” says Baione,