William Elford Leach. Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae. Title page. Naturalis, RBR Holt 00626. http://s.si.edu/2iVddtH.

Without a doubt, Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae (1815-1875) is one of the most beautiful publications dedicated to Crustacea. This work, a very special proofprint copy of which has recently been digitized and made available on BHL by the Naturalis Library, was the work of two well-known names in British natural history: the young zoologist William Elford Leach (1791-1836) and the experienced naturalist and engraver James Sowerby (1757-1822). The background and personal history of both gentlemen had a great influence on the coming about of the publication.

Illustration by James Sowerby for Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittaniae, by William Elford Leach. Tab. XXXVI. Naturalis, RBR Holt 00732. http://s.si.edu/2Bmxmnu.

William Elford Leach

William Elford Leach was one of the great British zoologists of the beginning of the nineteenth century. He started his career as assistant librarian at the British Museum and was responsible for the zoological collections. He was given the task of reorganizing the collections of Hans Sloane, which formed the basis of the museum.

Of the old carcinological collection, not much was left by the nineteenth century. Because of its deplorable condition, Leach’s predecessors were forced to destroy much of the collection materials, and as a result, of the hundreds of crustaceans left by Sloane in the eighteenth century, only one specimen has survived to this day. The core of the current carcinological collections of the British Museum is formed by specimens collected under Leach’s supervision. Not only did material from all over the world come in through his scientific contacts, he also donated his personal collection to the museum.

Leach’s merits go beyond collection building alone. He was a gifted taxonomist with a large scientific network who was therefore aware of the developments in systematics on the European continent. He shared this knowledge with his colleagues in Great Britain, organized the collections on a more scientific basis, and wrote a series of articles about it.

The scientific names that Leach introduced were sometimes unusual and not appreciated by all. He named for instance countless genera after a certain Caroline. Leach used her (latenized) name playfully as an anagram to create genus names like Ricenela and Cirolana. Nevertheless, his work ethic was highly praised and his scientific productivity was second to none.

Sadly, Leach’s career lasted only a decade. In 1821, he suffered a nervous breakdown from which he would never recover. A year later he departed from the museum. As a thank you for the enormous collections he had left behind, he received a pension from the British Museum. He did not fare much better after that. He traveled to France and Italy and died of cholera in 1836.

James Sowerby

Leach was a scientific innovator and brought the zoology in Great Britain to a higher level. Part of his success lay in his collaboration with a gifted artist. For the illustrations in Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae, he relied on the detailed and colorful imagination of James Sowerby.

Portrait of James Sowerby, by Thomas Heaphy. 1816. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/James_Sowerby#/media/File:James_Sowerby_by_Heaphy_(1816).jpg.

Sowerby was well known because of his extensive contributions to botanical masterpieces such as A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland.

Unlike most of his contemporaries, he was an artist who actively engaged in scientific work. He maintained correspondence with naturalists and urged them to send material that he could use for detailed studies. The colors that Sowerby used in his work are vivid and meant to appeal to a large audience. In 1809, he published a theory in which he stated that the basic colors red, yellow and blue offer all possibilities for botanical, zoological and geological imagination because these colors were given by nature.

Gold-plated Crabs and The Special Collection of Bibliotheca Carcinologica

The Bibliotheca Carcinologica, a unique collection in the Naturalis Library of approximately 8,000 publications and a large reprint collection, holds two special copies of Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae. This collection was amassed by a former curator, Lipke Bijdeley Holthuis (1921-2008), who for more than half a century was the leading expert in his field of crustacean taxonomy. He was particularly interested in collecting books that had been handed down by his famous predecessors.

L.B. Holthuis presented with his book (co-authored by Pietsch) about Lamotius. Photo: T.W. Pietsch, 2007, retouched by B. Kroonenberg.

The Bibliotheca Carcinologica’s first copy of Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae was specially bound for the British collector Henry Arthus Johnstone. It features a band of green morocco decorated with gilded crabs and Johnstone’s coat of arms.

Private binding from the library of Henry Arthur Johnstone for William Elford Leach’s Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae. Naturalis, RBR Holt 00626.

Private binding from the library of Henry Arthur Johnstone for William Elford Leach’s Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae. Naturalis, RBR Holt 00626.

Johnstone’s library contained much natural history and was sold in its entirety to a London bookseller in 1921. Subsequently, the books have spread all over the world.

A beautiful binding and a good provenance are of course desirable, but for Holthuis it was of greater importance that a copy was complete, and that in addition all information that provides insight into the publication’s history was preserved. At the back of Johnstone’s copy of Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae are the covers of the original seventeen plus the two later issues, revealing exact publication dates and an alternate original title, as well as providing insight into the intention of William Elford Leach with regards to the publication.

On the cover of the first issue, Leach wrote that he wanted to publish twelve or fourteen episodes. He asked British naturalists to help make the publication as complete as possible and encouraged them to accurately analyze all the ‘rubbish’ that dredgers collected from the seabed. Apparently, his call was successful, because on the cover of the thirteenth issue, Leach indicates that the discovery of new species made it impossible to complete the work in fourteen episodes. The new goal was to complete it within eighteen or nineteen episodes.

Illustration by James Sowerby for Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittaniae, by William Elford Leach. Tab. XXIA. Naturalis, RBR Holt 00732.http://s.si.edu/2ysE5H4.

After the seventeenth episode that appeared on March 1, 1820, the publication ceased. Leach was unable to continue his work after his breakdown. Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae was finally completed by George Brettinham Sowerby (1812-1884) over half a century later after the publisher Bernard Quaritch had bought up the stock remnants. Quaritch was sensitive to the wish of James Sowerby’s descendant to finish the publication according to the original plan. In one additional episode published in 1875 as nos. XVIII and XIX, six more plates plus a beautiful plate of a European lobster (Homarus gammarus), which had previously been unfinished, were published.

European lobster (Homarus gammarus). G.B. Sowerby, Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittaniae. Tab. XXXV. Naturalis, RBR Holt 00732. http://s.si.edu/2nRuVnp.

Printing Proofs

More than thirty years after Holthuis had acquired the fine copy from the library of Henry Arthur Johnstone, he bought a very expensive complete set of nineteen separate episodes of Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae. On the surface, it is not immediately clear why he would do this: after all, the copy he already had in his possession was complete, with all of the plates and the original covers of the episodes. Further analysis shows that this second copy purchased by Holthuis represents the proofs that William Elford Leach used to provide direction for the publication. On plate XXXIX, for example, he writes: ‘Can the rostrum be the added to this plate?’

Proof print. Illustration by James Sowerby for Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittaniae, by William Elford Leach. Tab. XXXIX. Naturalis, RBR Holt 00732. http://s.si.edu/2AvYOQ0.

The rostrum is a pointed, forward-looking deformity of the armor of a crustacean, which sometimes provides usable distinctive indication for taxonomic classification. No wonder Leach asked Sowerby if he could show that in detail. On the plate in Johnstone’s copy of the title, the rostrum of Spirontocaris spinus is indeed added.

William Elford Leach, Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittaniae. Tab. XXXIX. Ernst Mayr Library, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. http://s.si.edu/2kpJ46u.

Other instructions from Leach have also been neatly followed up. The proofs have no direct meaning for the nomenclature; after all, these are unpublished trials with no published names. However, they do provide a good insight into the way Leach and Sowerby worked together and which colors they had in mind.

This unique proofprint copy has recently been digitized for BHL by the Naturalis Library. You can explore it in BHL for free.

Illustration by James Sowerby for Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittaniae, by William Elford Leach. Tab. XXX. Naturalis, RBR Holt 00732. http://s.si.edu/2kti99F.

Naturalis Library

The library holds a large collections of scientific, taxonomic literature on zoology, geology, botany and palaeontology. It caters to everyone interested in researching biodiversity, geodiversity and evolution. The library is almost 200 years old and contains around 200,000 books, journals, drawings, prints, icones and many other archived materials.

This blog is largely based on the chapter: Alex Alsemgeest, ‘Malacostraca Podophthalmata Brittanniae: de drukproeven van het mooiste kreeftenboek. In: A. Alsemgeest en C. Fransen (eds.), In krabbengang door kreeftenboeken: de Bibliotheca Carcinologica L.B. Holthuis (Leiden: Naturalis Biodiversity Center, 2016), p. 123-127.

The Naturalis Biodiversity Center, a recent BHL Affiliate, is home to one of the largest natural history collections in the world, consisting of over 37 million specimens. Additionally, Naturalis has contributed nearly 200,000 pages to the BHL collection since 2016.

Over 900,000 of the museum’s 37+ million specimens are butterflies, some dating back to the 18th century. Approximately 18,000 drawers are required to store this vast Lepidoptera collection.

The Naturalis butterfly collection is not only vast, it is also rich in type specimens, which are indexed through type catalogs combining historical and taxonomical research. Recently, researchers set about compiling such a catalog for the museum’s South East Asian Adoliadini (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) type specimens.

In order to create this catalog, which was published last year (Gassó Miracle, M.E. & T. Yokochi, 2016, Lepidoptera Science 67(2)), the authors needed to access and compare all existing taxonomic descriptions for the specimens, identify synonyms, contrast plates and photographs, and verify geographic distribution.

“For all of this, specialized literature is essential,” asserts Eulàlia Gassó Miracle, Curator of Butterflies at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and co-author of the Adoliadini type catalog.

In order to sort out confusion regarding the origin, labeling, and taxonomy for the specimens, Eulàlia and her co-authors consulted more than 80 journals and books. More than half of them were available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

“BHL helped us to revise the taxonomy and the history of the specimens,” explains Eulàlia.

Eulàlia Gassó at the Naturalis butterfly collection. Photo by Henk Caspers.

BHL has been one of Eulàlia’s “most valued research tools” for the past decade.

“Although I have the privilege of access to most of the literature I need, either at the library of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center or the Leiden University Library, the BHL collection allows me to work in a flow from…well, anywhere,” explains Eulàlia. “BHL has also made available rare and unique publications from the 18th and 19th century, much needed for my research, that I cannot find in The Netherlands.”

Eulàlia first discovered BHL while looking for works by C.J. Temminck, zoologist and first director of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (RMNH, now Naturalis Biodiversity Center). Since then, she has used it to support her work as collections manager in various departments at the museum as well as her research on the history of 19th century natural history.

Title page of Manuel d’ornithologie, ou Tableau systématique des oiseaux qui se trouvent en Europe (Vol. 1, 2nd ed., 1820), by C.J. Temminck. Digitized by University Library, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33457859.

“As the curator of a natural history collection that is centuries old, I am also terribly curious about its former curators and curatorial practices,” says Eulàlia. “For this, again, BHL is a constant source of information and images. I share some of my findings and musings in my personal blog, the Museum Chronicles. For my historical research on the life and work of Temminck, accessing online his works and those of his peers has uncluttered my desk, helped organize my thoughts, given me access to new works – and with them, new insights – In a word, BHL helps me progress.”

Eulàlia uses BHL daily, either reading titles online or taking advantage of the custom PDF generation feature to download content. BHL’s high resolution image download feature, which Eulàlia discovered thanks to an @BioDivLibrary tweet, helps her compare illustrations with specimens. To further facilitate her research, Eulàlia is anxious to see full text search added to the BHL website. Happily, this is a feature that is currently in development.

BHL’s collections not only serve as a daily resource for Eulàlia’s research, but they also help her start each day with a little piece of natural history beauty.

Plate 12 of Snellen van Vollenhoven’s work on Adolias butterflies. The type specimens are deposited at Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Digitized by Smithsonian Libraries. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10840001.

“Recently, one of my favorite items is the article of Snellen van Vollenhoven on Adolias butterflies, one that I have read and examined repeatedly while validating the status of his type specimens,” says Eulàlia. “Plate 12 is so beautiful, it is the first thing I see when starting my computer.”

Indeed, we’re firm believers that every day is better with a little bit of #SciArt. So, whether you need to brighten your day with a little natural history eye candy or reconstruct the history of a type collection, BHL has you covered.

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This post may contain the personal opinions of BHL users or affiliated staff and does not necessarily represent the official Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) position on these matters.

Jeroen Snijders, Bob Corrigan, Peter Schalk, Donald Hobern, Tom Orrell, David Remsen, Alex Borisenko, Alex Borisenko, Martin Kalfatovic

On 13 April 2015, BHL Program Director Martin R. Kalfatovic attended the GBIF-CoL-EOL-BHL-BOLD Summit at Naturalis in Leiden, Netherlands. This meeting followed on the preceding Catalogue of Life meeting in Oostende, Belgium. The meeting took place in the historic Pesthuis on the Naturalis campus.

Other participants were:

• Donald Hobern, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Peter Schalk and David Remsen, Catalogue of Life (CoL)
• Tom Orrell, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian, Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)
• Bob Corrigan, Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)
• Alex Borisenko, Barcode of Life (BOLD)
• Jeroen Snijders, Naturalis

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss synergy and explore potential for intensifying collaboration concerning infrastructure, software tools, and services. The aims is to align strategic plans and future developments.

Jeroen Snijders, Naturalis CIO, opened the meeting with an overview of Naturalis IT structure and capacity. He also outlined recent past and upcoming EU funding opportunities.

Each of the participants then gave overviews of their programs and presented opportunities for collaboration and de-duplication of effort.

The Naturalis senior management team from collections, scientific research, and research and education joined the group for lunch.

The meeting concluded with a series of action items focused on aligning programs, developing interoperable resources, and sharing services and software tools.

The successful meeting built on existing partnerships and collaborations of the participants and provided a framework for advancing shared goals.