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The striking portraits of Native American tribal leaders illustrating McKenney and Hall’s History of the Indian tribes of North America,
were the work of artist Charles Bird King. The original paintings hung
in the "Indian Gallery" in the Department of War in Washington, D.C.
but were later transfered to the Smithsonian Building (now the Castle),
where several were destroyed by fire in 1865.
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 Bloch’s work is one of the high points in the history of ichthyology, both graphically and taxonomically. It is still in use as a standard reference for identification. Bloch described fishes from all over the world, relying on numerous contacts around the globe. In all, he listed more than 169 new species. A French edition, published in Berlin in 1785–97, allowed the work to reach a wider audience. Various engravers produced the plates in a remarkably consistent style over a 12-year period. The Smithsonian is one of only nine institutions in the world to hold a complete set of the original German editions and one of only two libraries to hold both the German and the French.
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 Gart der Gesundheit is one of the first printed herbals to be published in a vernacular language instead of Latin. Herbals combined folklore and home remedies, information from classical sources, and religious symbolism into a popular mix of botanical and medical advice.
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 Dickinson’s comprehensive pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 captures many colorful moments of the World’s Fair. The volume contained 55 colored lithographic reproductions of original paintings by Joseph Nash, Louis Haghe, and David Roberts.
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 Voyage historique de l'Amerique Meriodionale is Antonia de Ulloa’s account of an early expedition to measure an arc of meridian. Included were illustrations and descriptions of geological events, such as the eruption of Cotopaxi seen here.
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 Prior to his position as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Spencer Fullerton Baird was a noted ornithologist. He helped to build the collection of birds he later described in The birds of North America; the descriptions of species based chiefly on the collections in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
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 This image from Jacob Christian Schaffer’s Elementa entomologica features a jar and drawer of the type used to store natural history collections in museums of the eighteenth century.
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 Notable book illustrator Owen Jones (1809-1874) demonstrated his mastery of the chromolithographic process in this architectural work from 1842. Jones was known for his rich, saturated colors printed in layers. This detail is taken from Plans, elevations, sections, and details of the Alhambra, from
drawings taken on the spot in 1834 by Jules Goury, and in 1834 and 1837
by Owen Jones / With a complete translation of the Arabic
inscriptions, and an historical notice of the kings of Granada from the
conquest of that city by the Arabs to the expulsion of the Moors, by
Pasqual de Gayangos. This collection of illustrations and translations was published in two volumes by Owen Jones between 1842-1845, and is held in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library in New York. For more about this image, and more images from Owen Jones, visit SIL's Galaxy of Images.
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 Edward S. Curtis, a professional photographer based in Seattle, devoted his life to documenting what he perceived to be a vanishing race. His monumental work The North American Indian presented
to the public an extensive ethnographical study of numerous tribes, and his photographs
remain memorable icons of the American Indian.
SIL's collection of Curtis photographs can also be found on the photo sharing
site Flickr, as part of the
Smithsonian's participation in The
Commons. Please visit
us there and let us know what you think about these images!
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 Although he was best known for his Birds of North America, this volume on mammals by John James Audubon is just as beautifully illustrated. Based on watercolors of North American four-footed animals painted by Audubon and his son, John Woodhouse Audubon, it was also a commercial success.
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 Although published in the late nineteenth century, Racinet’s Le Costume Historique depicted fashions from a variety of historic time periods as well as from cultures around the world. With more than 400 detailed color plates, the work remains an important resource for costumers, illustrators and scholars.
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 Samuel Daniell was appointed artist for a British expedition into the interior of Africa's Cape of Good Hope in 1801. He sketched animals from life in their natural habitats, and was praised for his accuracy and attention to detail. Upon his return, Daniell used his field sketches to create and publish these aquatints.
See more illustrations by Daniell in the Smithsonian Libraries' Art of Afican Exploration exhibit.
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