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News
Featured Books
    All Featured Books
    Book of the Month Series
User Stories
Campaigns
    Fossil Stories
    Garden Stories
    Monsters Are Real
    Page Frights
    Her Natural History
    Earth Optimism 2020
Tech Blog
Visit BHL
  • Home
  • News
  • Featured Books
    • All Featured Books
    • Book of the Month Series
  • User Stories
  • Campaigns
    • Fossil Stories
    • Garden Stories
    • Monsters Are Real
    • Page Frights
    • Her Natural History
    • Earth Optimism 2020
  • Tech Blog
  • Visit BHL
Biodiversity Heritage Library - Program news and collection highlights from BHL

All posts in Featured Books

Blog Reel, Featured Books

Book of the Week: BHL, EOL, and Marine Life

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The dream of making biodiversity information freely available to people around the world is an ambitious goal embraced by many in the scientific community, and it represents the mission behind both the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Encyclopedia of Life (www.eol.com), of which BHL is a cornerstone institution.

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August 25, 2009byGrace Costantino
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Book of the Week: Poissons, Anatomy, Embryology and Belon

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Pierre Belon was one of the first great explorer-naturalists, blazing a trail that would be followed by such luminaries as Damphier, Catesby, Humbolt, and Darwin. He is one of the foremost figures in the world of comparative anatomy, issuing some of the earliest works on homology. His Histoire Naturelle des Estranges Poissons Marins, published in 1551, is the first printed work devoted to fish (although it must be noted that Belon included such aquatic non-fish as the dolphin and hippopotamus). The work is notable for its beautiful woodcut illustrations and Belon’s accurate anatomical descriptions, many of which were based on his own dissections. His description and image of a cetacean fetus in utero is considered the first example of the science of embryology.

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August 17, 2009byRebecca Morin
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Book of the Week: Lost and Found in the Journal de Botanique

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While selecting books for scanning, The New York Botanical Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library will often find treasure in between the pages of centuries-old tomes: pressed leaves and flowers, interesting or revealing marginalia, bookmarks, personal notes, and, yes, even cash.

Its collection overlaps with other BHL members, and contributing institutions often hold runs of the same journal, though not every copy is the same. An interesting example of this is the Mertz Library’s copy of Journal de botanique appliquée à l’agriculture à la pharmacie, à la médecine et aux arts(t.3, no. 3-5, – t.4, no.1-2 1814).

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August 3, 2009byKevin Nolan
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Book of the Week: Cuvier and Classification

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This week’s book of the week relates yet another milestone in the development of a classification system for life on earth. Cuvier’s The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization, Serving as a Foundation for the Natural History of Animals, was an attempt to classify the animal kingdom on the basis of comparative anatomy, of which Cuvier’s entire classification schema was centered.
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July 27, 2009byMichelle Strizever
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Book of the Week: Taxonomy Before Linnaeus

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Taxonomic literature can be divided into Pre-Linnaean and Post-Linnaean literature, with Post-Linnaean literature being those works published after Carl Linnaeus developed his famous naming and classification schema, binomial nomenclature. This week’s book of the week, Historia Vermium, is an interesting example of a Pre-Linnaean text. The Smithsonian’s copy, pictured here, is one of only two copies in the Western Hemisphere, according to OCLC, and one of only twelve in the world. The author, Joachim Jung, was known chiefly as a mathematician and astronomer, being considered on par with the likes of Galileo. He also focused many of his studies on natural history, particularly in the realm of botany. Historia Vermium, like many of Jung’s works, was published posthumously.

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July 20, 2009byGrace Costantino
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Book of the Week: Aesthetics Edition

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This week, we highlight the botanical illustrations of Georg Dionysius Ehret.

Active during the 18th century, his illustrations became the must-have accompaniment for scientists interested in precise rendering of the species at hand. Born into a modest family of gardeners, his achievements (as they so often do) result from a combination of talent and circumstance.

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July 13, 2009byErin Thomas
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Book of the Week: BHL Critters, Oh My!

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For anyone who has seen the new BHL business cards, this week’s Book of the Week may look vaguely familiar. Several of the species images used on the cards (and indeed at the top of this webpage) were taken from plates found in the Report on the Zoological Collections Made During the Voyage of the H.M.S. ‘Alert.’

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June 15, 2009byGrace Costantino
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About BHL

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL’s global consortium of natural history, botanical, and research libraries cooperate to digitize and make their collections accessible as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.”

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