Empire's Nature

Completed in 1747, Mark Catesby's ""Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands"" was a major illustrated publication on the flora and fauna of Britain's American colonies. Together with his ""Hortus Britanno-Americanus"", which detailed plant species that might be transplanted successfully to British soil. Catesby's ""Natural History"" exerted an impotant influence on the development of art, natural history, and scientific observation in the 18th century. Inspired by a major travelling exhibition of Catesby's watercolour drawings from the Royal Library, this interdisciplinary collection considers Mark Catesby's endeavours as a naturalist-artist, scientific explorer, experimental horticulturist, ornamental gardener, and early environmental thinker in terms of the interests held by the various, overlapping communities in which he functioned.