All posts by Grace Costantino

Welcome to the new and improved BHL blog!

To provide you with a better user experience, we’ve updated the design, navigation and functionality of the BHL blog. Continue reading to learn more about our new features.

BHL will be unavailable due to network maintenance starting 0900 GMT on Monday March 5, 2018. This downtime may last up to a few hours. During this time you may access our collection via the Internet Archive. Thank you for your patience.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is looking for a Digital Content Intern for Summer 2018.Hosted through the Smithsonian Libraries, this is an unpaid, virtual internship. Interns will work remotely and should should have their own computer and internet access, as well as video conferencing capability. Applications are open until 23 March 2018 or until filled.

Can science increase agricultural productivity and support food security?The founders of the Royal Agricultural Society of England believed so. In 1838, a group of individuals with varied agricultural interests united to establish the Society with the purpose to promote the scientific advancement of English agriculture. Just two years later, in 1840, Queen Victoria granted the Society its Royal Charter, and the Society has played a significant role in agricultural progress in England ever since.

UPDATE: The BHL website is back online. Thank you for your patience!

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the scientific community was engrossed in discussions about evolution and the origin of species. The publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859 fueled extensive scientific debate and prompted further questions regarding human evolution. A key figure in these debates was Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist and comparative anatomist.

German ornithologist and herpetologist Hermann Schlegel hoped that the publication of good illustrations would stimulate public interest in reptiles and amphibians. Thus, he produced Abbildungen neuer oder unvollständig bekannter Amphibian (1837-44).