All posts in Featured Books

Blog Reel, Campaigns, Featured Books, Monsters Are Real

A Whale of a Tale…The Leviathan

In the 6th century AD, St. Brendan, an Irish cleric, and eighteen other monks, sailed out from Ireland to cross the ocean. Amidst their journey, they came upon a black, treeless island and decided to make camp for the night. Several monks set up a cooking station and lit a fire. And then the island began to move. Terrified, the monks fled back to their boat, leaving the food and fire behind. St.

October 28, 2014byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Campaigns, Featured Books, Monsters Are Real

Monsters Are Real…

“HIC SUNT DRACONES.” This phrase translates from the Latin as “here are dragons.” It is etched on the eastern coast of Asia on one of the oldest terrestrial globe maps, the Lenox Globe, dating to 1510. Though the phrase itself is found on only one other historical artifact, a 1504 globe crafted on an ostrich egg, the depiction of monsters and mythological beasts are common on early maps.

October 27, 2014byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Featured Books

Down the rabbit (Lepus curpaeums) hole: Edward A. Chapin

Last week, with the arrival of many more of the field books to the Biodiversity Heritage Library web portal, I had the chance to dive deeply into the field books of Edward Chapin, entomologist and Curator of Insects at the Smithsonian Institution from 1934 to 1954. I spent the most time in his field book covering a set of travels to Cuba and Jamaica, though mostly Jamaica, in 1937 and 1941.

October 13, 2014byJulia Blase

Blog Reel, Featured Books

Hispanic Heritage Month: The Life and Work of Louis Agassiz Fuertes

The artwork of Puerto Rican-American Louis Agassiz Fuertes has been featured a few times before on the BHL blog. His paintings are beautiful and eye-catching, and always a treat to visit. Through titles available in BHL, we can even see the evolution of Fuertes’s career— from his earliest professional work to his last. The Ithaca-born ornithologist and artist often drew as a young child, sketching domestic animals and wild birds alike.

October 2, 2014byAdriana Marroquin

Blog Reel, Featured Books

Visitors from Paradise: The Paradiseidae

Deep within the rainforest canopy of the Aru Islands, just west of New Guinea, two male Greater Birds-of-Paradise dance among the branches in carefully coordinated steps, their magnificent yellow, white, and maroon plumage undulating gracefully to the rhythm of their own unique song.

September 25, 2014byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Featured Books

A Crusade to Save the Golden Lion Tamarin

Post by Grace Costantino with significant contributions from Field Book Project blog post, “Field Notes from a Battle Against Extinction,” by Sonoe Nakasone.

A small, endangered primate, the Golden Lion Tamarin (GLT) (also known as the Golden or Lion Marmoset) gets its name from the trademark, vivid orange “mane” surrounding its face. Don’t let the “lion” part fool you, however.

September 18, 2014byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Featured Books

The Sea Dog: Exploring the Discovery & Classification of the Shark

It’s that time of year again! That special week set aside to celebrate the fabulously diverse Selachimorpha clade: Shark Week! If you were to ask an average person to differentiate between a tiger shark, Great White, whale shark, bull shark, or mako, most could probably do so, or would at least be aware that such varieties existed. This wasn’t always the case.

August 12, 2014byGrace Costantino