Museums, libraries and archives the world over prove an invaluable resource for classification illustrations – finely detailed images of bizarre species of flora and fauna which never fail to delight. By definition, the pieces are created to assist with identifying some as yet unknown and unnamed species rather than for aesthetic pleasure, so sharp edges go unsoftened and ugly angles remain so, and yet, the resulting images maintain a strange, ineffable charm.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a consortium of 14 natural history and botanical libraries across the UK and the USA, and together, its principal concern is in archiving and digitising their respective collections for open access. This in itself is a magnificent undertaking – the breadth of images on display through its website being quite astounding, created for field guides, encyclopaedias, magazines and taxonomies – but the illustrated treasures which can be found within it, from seashells and elephants to beached sperm whales and wonderfully intricate botanical drawings, even more so. Here we present a collection of weird and wonderful aquatic creatures, from the common goldfish to the stingray, made all the more beguiling by their hand-painted genesis.Â
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