Rare Book of the Month – May 2006
The Monograph of the Felidae or Family of Cats (1878) was created by Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915), an American zoologist and one of the founders of the American Museum of Natural History. He used his wealth to publish a series of sumptuous color-plate books on birds and animals. For this work he wrote the text himself and commissioned painter Joseph Wolf (1820-1899) to provide the 43 illustrations. Wolf was the finest natural history artist of his time and created these images from information and sketches provided by Elliot, his own observations at the London Zoo, and from skeletons, skins and specimens in museums.
Monograph of the Felidae or Family of Cats is part of the Rare Book Collection at Haverford College and is accessible from the reading room of Special Collections.
John Anderies, Coordinator for Special and Digital Collections, poses here with a page from Monograph of the Felidae or Family of Cats (1878).
Tags: Cats, Illustrations