Voyages of Discovery: Three Centuries of Natural History Exploration

Voyages is a mesmerizing visual record of some of the most significant, and beautiful, discoveries in the history of natural science exploration. Superb artwork and photographs spanning three centuries document advances and watersheds in the field of natural science. The stories of the explorers, naturalists, artists, and photographers behind these images entwine in a fascinating study of human achievement and natural wonder. Handpicked from the vast archives of the Natural History Museum in London, the illustrations and artworks contained in Voyages form a rare and beautiful collection, most of which has never been in the public eye.

Highlights include Sir Hans Sloane's 1687 voyage to Jamaica, where he collected and recorded plant specimens, cocoa among them, which are preserved to this day; Maria Sybilla Merian's personal sojourn to Surinam in 1699 to record in brilliant detail butterflies and exotic insects; Darwin's fateful trip to the Galápagos Islands, on which he cataloged finches and fossils; William Bartrams's fanciful yet detailed documentation of North American wildlife; and Matthew Flinder's mapping of Australia, where he was accompanied by perhaps the greatest of all natural science artists, Ferdinand Bauer.

Surveying one millennium of discovery and exploration, Voyages inspires and awes with its beauty and history, and carries us forward into the exhilarating possibilities of the next.

The Natural History Museum in London is a repository for some of the most exciting and comprehensive collections of natural science specimens, illustrations, and artworks to be found anywhere in the world. It holds 68 million specimens, some of which are several centuries old; close to half a million works of art on paper, comprising one of Britain's largest art collections and representing all the great natural history artists; and one million books, including rare, richly illustrated antique volumes. Together they constitute an unrivaled resource, consulted daily by scientists and historians worldwide.