The original drawings for Dru Drury’s Illustrations of Natural History (1770-1782) are rediscovered in rural Virginia

Abstract

Although Drury’s Illustrations of Natural History is familiar to entomologists, the original drawings used in its production went completely unnoticed as they shifted ownership for 230 years, remaining inaccessible to researchers. I was recently surprised to discover that they still exist as Drury described them, and their most recent owner was as extraordinary as the drawings themselves.

Full text

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The original drawings for Dru Drury’s
Illustrations of Natural History (1770-1782)
are rediscovered in rural Virginia
John V. Calhoun
977 Wicks Drive, Palm Harbor, FL 34684 bretcal1@verizon.net
Research Associate, McGuire Ctr. for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, FL Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL
Illustrations of Natural History (Drury 1770, 1773, 1782)
is heralded as one of the classics of historical entomology.
Issued in three volumes, it was entirely nanced and or-
ganized by Dru Drury (1724-1803) (Fig. 1), a prosperous
gold and silversmith in London who spared no expense in
assembling a diverse collection of insects from all over the
world. Illustrations of Natural History includes 150 hand-
colored plates, nearly all of which were expertly drawn and
engraved by the English entomologist Moses Harris (1730-
1787) (Fig. 2), one of the most talented insect artists of the
period. Drury described a number of familiar North Amer-
ican species of Lepidoptera in the work. Panzer (1785-
1788) published an emended German translation of the
rst volume, and all three volumes were reissued many
years later as a new edition (Westwood 1837).
Although Drury’s Illustrations of Natural History is famil-
iar to entomologists, the original drawings used in its pro-
duction went completely unnoticed as they shifted owner-
ship for 230 years, remaining inaccessible to researchers.
The most recent transaction was in 1964, when a private
buyer acquired them from a New York bookseller. Unable
to determine their whereabouts for many years, I feared
the worst. I was recently surprised to discover that they
still exist as Drury described them, and their most recent
owner was as extraordinary as the drawings themselves.
Historical provenance. Prior to beginning work on Il-
lustrations of Natural History, Dru Drury was already
acquainted with Moses Harris. Drury sponsored Har-
ris’ masterpiece The Aurelian, the most celebrated early
book on English butteries and moths. In recognition of
Drury’s patronage, Harris dedicated Plate XXXVII of The
Aurelian to “my Ingenous [sic] Friend and Benefactor, Mr
Dru Drury” (Harris 1758-1766). The plates for this book
— entirely drawn, engraved, and colored by Harris — gal-
vanized his reputation as a skilled artist and engraver
(Lisney 1960, Mays 1986). In 1766, at 36 years of age,
Harris began drawing insects that would be included in
Drury’s Illustrations of Natural History.
After the publication of the rst two volumes of Illustrations
of Natural History, Drury asked his principal bookseller,
Benjamin White, to help dispose of the original drawings,
but White failed to nd a buyer. In 1776, Drury offered
them to the English physician and botanist John Fother-
gill for £210, noting that they were
rendered on vellum, but Fothergill
declined (Noblett 1988). When the
third volume of his book was being
prepared, Drury intended to “dis-
pose of all the original drawings
from which the engravings have
been taken” (Anonymous 1842).
He added that they were “wonder-
fully ne” and valued them at £325,
which equates to about £46,000 in
today’s economy. In a draft printed
circular from 1788, Drury described
the drawings as “done on vellum,
and nished in the highest taste,
and with the most delicate softness
and accuracy imaginable. They are
bound in three folio volumes, cov-
ered with red Morocco, elegantly
ornamented with large gold border
on the sides . . . .” Drury desired
that they be “placed in the posses-
sion of some eminent person,” and
Fig. 1 (left). Dru Drury (Anonymous 1842). Fig. 2 (right). Moses Harris in 1780, a few years
after he completed the drawings for Illustrations of Natural History (Harris 1766-1781).

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be “kept together and not separated” (Drury manuscripts,
Oxford University Museum of Natural History; OUMNH).
Interestingly, Drury crossed out the discussion about the
drawings, presumably because he sold them during the
preparation of the circular.
The rst recipient appears to have been Thomas Allen
(1739-1831), a Fellow of the Linnean Society who was in-
terested in antiquities, literature, and ne arts (Leggatt
1994). Allen’s library was auctioned in 1795 (Leigh and
Sotheby 1795), and the catalog for the sale described the
drawings as “Harris’ Original Paintings on vellum of In-
sects described by D. Drury, bound in red Morocco, gilt
leaves, border of gold, 3 vol.” According to notations on a
copy of the sale catalog, the nal price was £100 5s, far
below Drury’s earlier valuation.
The buyers of the drawings were the booksellers Benja-
min White (1754-1821) and his brother, John White (1765-
1855). Their father was Benjamin White (1725-1794), who
had been the principal distributor of Drury’s book. The
following year, the White brothers listed the drawings for
sale for £160, describing them as “Mr. D. Drury’s collection
of curious and rare Exotic Insects, curiously painted on
Vellum by Moses Harris, 3 vol bound in red Morocco, gilt
leaves . . . 150 most beautiful and highly-nished Paint-
ings” (White and White 1796). The drawings did not sell
that year, and were listed at the same price by J. White
(1798, 1801) after the retirement of his brother. It is un-
known when White sold the drawings, but by 1819 they
were in the possession of the English banker and politi-
cian John Dent (1761-1826). Clarke (1819) listed them in
Dent’s library as “Drury’s (D.) Insects, the original draw-
ings, on vellum, 3 vols. fol[io].”
John Dent’s library was auctioned the year after his death.
The original drawings for Illustrations of Natural History
were described as “exquisitely painted upon vellum, by
Moses Harris, to illustrate Drury’s History of Insects, ex-
hibiting upwards of 244 exotic insects, &c. bound in 3 vol.
red Morocco” (Evans 1827). Auction records indicate that
they were purchased for £115 10s by William Gott (1797-
1863), a wool merchant and art collector. Gott apparently
gave the drawings to his sister, Elizabeth Wormald (1794-
1883), who was known to have owned them in the early
1840s (Anonymous 1842). Elizabeth’s rst husband, Rich-
ard Wormald, died in a re in 1823, six months after their
marriage. In 1829, she married the Scottish merchant
William Allan of Glen (1788-1868).
Although Sherborn (1940) claimed that Drury’s “orig.
drawings” were deposited in the Hope Library (OUMNH),
this was not the case. After the death of Elizabeth Allan
in 1880, the drawings were presumably left to her sister,
Anne, who had married William Whitaker Maitland in
1820. The drawings passed down through the family to
their great-grandson, Sir John Francis Whitaker Maitland
(1903-1977), who served in the British parliament. When
his library was auctioned by Sotheby’s in March 1964, the
sale catalog listed the drawings in detail as “depicting
about 640 exotic butteries and other insects, exquisitely
painted on 150 sheets of vellum, mostly signed, mounted
and bound in three albums, contemporary red straight-
grained Morocco gilt, border of palmettes with honeysuck-
le ornaments at corners round sides, large gilt stamps of
butteries on spines, in three slip-cases, the drawings are
within line frames, measuring about 205 mm. by 665 mm.”
(Sotheby & Co. 1964). The auction catalog included a black
and white photo of the drawing that was used for Plate IV
of Drury (1770). The sale of the drawings was advertised
beforehand as “Three albums containing original water-
colour drawings for Drury’s ‘Illustrations of Natural His-
tory’ . . . to be sold at Sotheby’s in London on March 16”
(Anonymous 1964a). Sotheby’s auction records, as well as
a post-sale announcement (Anonymous 1964b), reveal that
the buyer of the drawings was the New York bookseller
Hans P. Kraus (1907-1988), who paid £1900.
The book rm H.P. Kraus offered the drawings for sale
in October 1964, describing them as “150 paintings on
vellum, including 675 gures, mostly of butteries and
moths, but including also dragon-ies, grasshoppers, and
beetles. The vellum leaves c.260x220 mm., each mounted
on paper, and with guard leaves and tissues. Bound in 3
folio volumes. Contemporary English crimson Morocco,
gilt-tooled borders, gilt back with insect gures in com-
partments” (Kraus 1964). It was further noted that “Each
drawing is within line borders, almost all of them are
signed, and a few are dated.” They were considered to be
“in pristine condition throughout, except for discoloration
of the vellum of [no.] eight in volume 3. . . .” The sale cata-
log included a color photo of the drawing that was used for
Plate VIII of Drury (1773). The listed price for the volumes
was $15,000, which was a considerable mark-up from the
$6300 (=£1900 in 1964) that Kraus paid at the Sotheby
auction earlier that year.
I was unable to identify the most recent buyer of the draw-
ings, but was hopeful when a Sotheby auction in 2003
claimed to have sold “original drawings for or after Dru
Drury’s Illustrations of Natural History” for a whopping
£72,000. I was disappointed to learn that these 150 draw-
ings were bound in a single volume with a 39-page, hand-
written index. This did not conform to earlier descriptions
of the original drawings being bound in three separate
volumes, without an index. Furthermore, these drawings
did not exhibit the same artistic style as those gured by
Sotheby & Co. (1964) and Kraus (1964). I ultimately con-
cluded that the drawings auctioned in 2003 were by an
unknown nineteenth century copyist. As luck would have
it, an unassuming blog nally raised the curtain on the
fate of the authentic original drawings for Illustrations of
Natural History.
Current ownership. In a blog posted on 16 June 2022,
Macey Wissell, a communications intern at the Oak Spring

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Garden Foundation, discussed entomological works
that are preserved in the Oak Spring Garden Library in
Upperville, Virginia. From among many such items in the
library, one of the four she featured was “Three albums
of insects . . . comprised of 150 water and body color
drawings on vellum containing 666 specimens of in-
sects, each mounted on paper with guard leaves and tis-
sue, each measuring about 11 ¼ x 9 ⅛ inches” (Wissell
2022). Not only did she explicitly identify the drawings
as those for Drury’s Illustrations of Natural History,
but she included several images that matched the
artistic style of the drawings gured by Sotheby & Co.
(1964) and Kraus (1964). I immediately contacted Tony
Willis, head librarian of the Oak Spring Garden Li-
brary, who conrmed that they indeed possess the origi-
nal drawings, and he shared some tantalizing photos to
prove it.
The drawings were purchased from H.P. Kraus on 27
October 1964 by Paul Mellon (1907-1999) on behalf
of his wife, philanthropist Rachel Lambert “Bunny”
Mellon (1910-2014) (Fig. 3). The Mellon’s primary resi-
dence (among many) was a 4000-acre (1619 ha) rural
estate called Oak Spring Farm in Fauquier County, Vir-
ginia. The remarkable lives of the Mellons have been de-
tailed in various biographies, including Mellon (1992),
Gordon (2017), Tomasi and Willis (2020), and Griswold
(2022).
Nicknamed “Bunny” by her childhood nurse, Rachel
Mellon enjoyed a wealthy upbringing. Her father, busi-
nessman Gerard B. Lambert, was president of Warner-
Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, where he market-
ed Listerine mouthwash, which his father invented in
1879. Bunny became one of the wealthiest women in the
world in 1948, when she married Paul Mellon, an art
collector and heir to the great Mellon Bank fortune. His
father was the industrialist and banking tycoon Andrew
W. Mellon. In 1957, Paul was considered to be the fth
wealthiest man in America.
At an early age, Bunny developed a love of plants, which
evolved into a life-long passion for botany, horticulture,
and landscape design. In 1961, Bunny’s expertise in
gardening prompted U.S. President John F. Kennedy to
request that she redesign the Rose Garden on the west
side of the White House grounds (Mellon 1983). The
resulting landscape served as a backdrop for countless
social events until it was renovated (not without con-
troversy) in 2020. For many years, Bunny was a close
friend and condant of Jacqueline Kennedy (later Onas-
sis), bound by their mutual interest in art and fashion.
Their friendship survived beyond the assassination of J.
F. Kennedy in 1963, when Bunny was allowed a private
viewing of his casket at the White House, before it was
moved to the Capital Building to lie in state.
Bunny is perhaps best known in recent years for her
involvement in two headline-grabbing events. As an ar-
dent supporter of Senator John Edwards for the 2008
presidential election, she learned that her substantial
nancial donations were unwittingly diverted to cover
the daily expenses of Edwards’ mistress and child. This
contributed to Edwards’ indictment in 2011 for violating
campaign nance laws (he was ultimately acquitted of
the charges). In 2010, Bunny lost a great deal of money
when her accountant, Kenneth I. Starr, defrauded her
and other wealthy clients in a massive Ponzi scheme,
resulting in Starr’s conviction and imprisonment.
Over the years, Bunny acquired numerous published
and unpublished works, ranging from botanical sub-
jects to biographies of naturalists and explorers (Mellon
1989). To house her growing collections of books, man-
uscripts, and artwork, her husband arranged for the
construction near their home of the Oak Spring Garden
Library, which was completed in 1981 (OSGF 2023). In
1993, Bunny established the Oak Spring Garden Foun-
dation to ensure that the collections would remain a
valuable resource for future generations. The library
was expanded in 1997 to accommodate over 19,000 ob-
jects that she had accumulated. Bunny died on 17 March
2014 at the age of 103.
We can be thankful that the original drawings for Drury’s
Illustrations of Natural History captured the attention of
Bunny Mellon, who clearly understood their signicance
and possessed the means to care for them. This is a t-
ting outcome, as some of the specimens gured among the
drawings were collected in Virginia. Drury’s wish for the
drawings to be “placed in the possession of some eminent
person” was more than fullled.
Fig. 3. Paul and Bunny Mellon, 1993 (courtesy Oak Spring
Garden Foundation).

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Drawing details. The Oak Spring Garden Library gen-
erously shared digital images of all three volumes of
drawings. The 150 watercolors are bound as described by
Sotheby & Co. (1964) and Kraus (1964) (Fig. 4). Written
at the top right corner of a front yleaf in each volume
is the signature “Eliza Wormald,” referring to Elizabeth
Wormald, an early owner of the drawings (because she
used the last name “Wormald,” she must have received the
drawings from her brother prior to her second marriage in
1829). Afxed to the inside cover of the third volume is an
old, handwritten note reading “The original drawings pre-
pared for ‘Drury’s Illustrations
of Insects’ drawn on Vellum by
Moses Harris the artist” (Fig.
4, inset). Pasted beneath this
note is a modern sheet of blue
paper, with handwritten bio-
graphical information about
Harris.
The drawings are rendered on
vellum, trimmed, and mount-
ed on laid backing papers with
tissue guards (Fig. 5). Each
has a black, multi-lined frame
around the gured specimens,
which are depicted life-size
(Figs. 5-18, 20). Overall, the
illustrations are in excellent
condition and bound in the
same order as the correspond-
ing engraved plates in the
published volumes by Drury
(1770, 1773, 1782). As noted
by Kraus (1964), drawing no.
8 in the third volume is heav-
ily discolored along its edges,
possibly due to the adhesive
used to mount it to the back-
ing paper.
Harris signed all but eight of
the drawings in the rst vol-
ume (nos. 13-15, 18, 22, 43,
46, 47) and all but 15 in the
second (nos. 2, 10, 17, 19, 20,
29, 38, 40-47). Harris’ signa-
ture varies considerably on
the drawings, from a simple
“M.H.” to the lengthier “Mo.s
Harris pinxt”; the latter short
for the Latin “pinxit” (“paint-
ed by”). The rst drawing in
the second volume is signed
and dated “Mo.s Harris Nov.
1 1770.” In the third volume,
the rst drawing (Fig. 15) is
signed and dated “M.s Harris
pinx May 4 1776,” and drawing no. 24 is similarly signed
“M.s Harris pinx May 1776.” Harris signed all other
drawings in this volume with the exception of no. 3.
Two additional drawings in the third volume (nos. 39, 50)
are unsigned, but the corresponding engraved Plates XXX-
IX and L of Drury (1782) attribute them to “M. Gartside.”
Mary Gartside (1755-1819) was a little known English art-
ist who studied color theory (Loske 2010). Her drawings
are very precise, but are immediately distinguished from
those of Harris by their lack of shadows on the gures, as
Figs. 4-7. Original drawings* by M. Harris for Drury (1770). 4, binding of the rst volume; center
inset is a note in the third volume (enlarged). 5, entire sheet with trimmed drawing mounted on
backing paper; includes Vanessa virginiensis (Drury) (top) for Pl. V. 6, featuring Eacles imperialis
(Drury) (top, bottom) for Pl. IX. 7, Battus philenor (L.) (top, bottom right) and Papilio polyxenes F.
for Pl. XI. (*Courtesy Oak Spring Garden Foundation.)

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well as the double-lined ink frames around the subjects
(Harris used triple-lined frames) (Fig. 17). The number of
plates in Illustrations of Natural History that were based
on a second artist has long been the topic of speculation.
Authors, such as Duncan (1841) and Weiss (1927), vaguely
remarked that “some” of the plates in the third volume
were by another artist. The artistic style and signatures
on the drawings establish that Gartside contributed only
two illustrations, while all others are by Harris. Those by
Gartside were likely the last to be drawn. Harris may have
no longer been available, or he refused to continue with the
project, forcing Drury to engage another artist.
Harris captured subtle details of the specimens that he il-
lustrated, even if they were not always reproduced on the
published plates. For example, Harris’ original gures of
the North American buttery Phyciodes tharos (Drury)
(Fig. 10) display orange antennal clubs. This explicitly
contradicts Drury’s claim that the antennal “Extremities
or Knobs” of this species are brown. The gures of tharos
on most colored prints of Plate XXI of Drury (1770) pos-
sess brown clubs, as Drury complained when the plates
did not agree with his written descriptions. The color of the
antennal club (nudum) is often a helpful means to iden-
tify similar Phyciodes taxa, including regional phenotypes
of P. tharos. It is obvious that
Harris illustrated a specimen of
tharos that Drury did not closely
examine. Drury (1770) remarked
that his descriptions were based
entirely on the “natural subjects
themselves,” rather than the il-
lustrations.
Harris engraved the copper
plates that were used to produce
the prints from his drawings for
Illustrations of Natural History.
The term “plate” is used to de-
scribe the metal printing surface
in intaglio printing (e.g., copper
plates), and, by extension, the
resulting print that is bound into
a book separate from the let-
terpress. Harris directly trans-
ferred his original gures to the
copper plates, producing mirror
images on the resulting prints.
Harris deviated from this pro-
cess when he engraved the plate
from his drawing no. 34 of the
second volume. In this case, he
engraved the gures to look like
the drawing (i.e., not reversed),
and switched the positions of the
smaller gures. All other original
drawings by Harris are mirror
images of the published plates in
Drury (1770, 1773, 1782).
Harris did not engrave the two
plates that were based on draw-
ings by Mary Gartside for Drury
(1782). Instead, those were pre-
pared by Peter Mazell (1733-
1808), an Irish painter and
engraver who specialized in nat-
ural history subjects (Raat 2010).
Mazell engraved his signature at
the bottom of Plates XXXIX and
L of Drury (1782). He engraved
Figs. 8-11. Original drawings* by M. Harris for Drury (1770). 8, featuring Argynnis idalia
(Drury) (center gs.) for Pl. XIII. 9, featuring Pterourus palamedes (Drury) (top, bottom) for Pl.
XIX. 10, including Euphydryas phaeton (Drury) (center) and Phyciodes tharos (Drury) (bot-
tom) for Pl. XXI. 11, including Manduca sexta (L.) (top) for Pl. XXV. (*Courtesy Oak Spring
Garden Foundation.)

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Gartside’s gures for Plate XXXIX to look like the origi-
nals (i.e., not reversed), but he ipped the upper (ventral)
gure, as it was originally drawn upside-down (Fig. 17).
Chrysiridia rhipheus. Drawing no. 23 of the second
volume (Fig. 18) resulted in confusion when it was pub-
lished as Plate XXIII of Drury (1773). Drury described
the large gured specimen as a buttery from China,
which he named Papilio rhipheus. Drury’s published
gures were copied by Esper (1801), Swainson (1832-
1833) and Duncan (1837), who debated their accuracy.
Westwood (1837) argued that the head of a buttery had
been afxed to the body and wings of a moth, specically
a species of Uraniidae. The species was later recognized
as a uraniid moth from Madagas-
car, now known as Chrysiridia
rhipheus, though the gures failed
to include the multiple hindwing
tails of this striking species (Fig.
19). Westwood (1879) ultimately
concluded that the gures were
“taken from a specimen which had
the hind wings mutilated, and the
head replaced by that of a Papilio.”
The dorsal wings of Harris’
rhipheus are essentially dupli-
cated from his ventral gure, with
reworked coloration (Fig. 18). The
dorsal gure bears little resem-
blance to the actual moth (Fig.
19). The bushy, distorted head
(Fig. 18a) is very crude and does
not resemble any papilionids that
Harris illustrated (Fig. 18b), sug-
gesting that it was fabricated.
However, Harris did not do this for
the drawing of the headless speci-
men of the Asian moth Amesia
sanguiua (Drury) for Plate XX in
the same volume of Illustrations of
Natural History. For those gures,
he drew an outline of the missing
head and Drury noted in the text
that the “Head is wanting.” Jor-
dan (1928) regarded the published
gures of rhipheus as a “‘mermaid’
Lepidopteron” and dismissed them
as “so different from any known
specimen that even allowing for mu-
tilation and for the mistakes of the
artist, the identication of the g-
ure with the Malagassic [Madagas-
can] Chrysiridia is rendered very
doubtful.”
In his description of Papilio
rhipheus, Drury (1773) remarked
that “when the drawing was taken, [the specimen] was
in the possession of Captain May of Hammersmith.”
Drury’s copy letters (Natural History Museum, London)
reveal that “Captain May” likely refers to William May
(1725-1807), an Englishman who served as a captain in
the Dutch navy. In addition to being a procient naval
commander, May had a keen interest in the sciences and
he gathered natural history specimens during his trav-
els (Lacépède 1791). Drury rst wrote to May in 1767, re-
questing that he obtain insects during a scheduled voyage
to Suriname. Unfortunately, there is no reference to the
specimen of C. rhipheus in Drury’s three surviving copy
letters to May. It must have been collected before 1771,
when the engravings for Drury (1773) were completed.
Figs. 12-15. Original drawings* by M. Harris. 12, including Limenitis arthemis (Drury) (cen-
ter) for Pl. X of Drury (1773). 13, featuring Callosamia promethea (Drury) (top, bottom) for
Pl. XII of Drury (1773). 14, including Hemileuca maia (Drury) (center left) for Pl. XXIV of
Drury (1773). 15, Papilio antimachus Drury for Pl. I of Drury (1782). (*Courtesy Oak Spring
Garden Foundation.)

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Although William May lived in Amsterdam, he sometimes
visited England and was a correspondent of the Scottish
naturalist and nurseryman James Lee (1715-1795), who
lived in Hammersmith (now a district of London). In fact,
Lee recommended that Drury contact May, and Lee was
willing to convey May’s specimens to Drury.
It is unlikely that Harris would have produced such a fan-
ciful representation of this unique moth had he worked
directly from the physical specimen. Instead, he may have
copied his gures from a crude drawing of the specimen,
which included vague notes about its coloration. The actual
specimen was possibly no more than a disembodied set
of tattered wings. The tails of this moth were often miss-
ing from early, wild-caught specimens (Guenée 1877). It
is conceivable that May visited Lee at Hammersmith and
shared a drawing of a restored incomplete specimen. Lee
forwarded the drawing to Drury, noting that the gured
specimen was in the possession of “Captain May,” who had
been visiting Hammersmith. The origin of the specimen
was possibly forgotten, prompting Drury to propose an ex-
otic locale (i.e., China).
Goliathus goliatus. An-
other notable drawing is Har-
ris’ portrayal of the beetle
Goliathus goliatus L., which
was used for Plate XXXI of
Drury (1770). There was a
great deal of controversy sur-
rounding the perceived owner-
ship of the gured specimen,
which was the only one known
for many years (Brock 1977,
Hancock and Douglas 2009).
It was reportedly found in
1766, oating dead in a river
in western Africa. Although
the original drawing (Fig. 20)
is undated, Harris signed his
copper plate “Mos Harris fecit
1767” (fecit is Latin for “he
made this”), and letters indi-
cate that it was engraved by 11
August that year (Hancock and
Douglas 2009). The illustration
was initially created by Harris
for a planned publication by
the scandalous English bota-
nist Emanuel Mendez da Costa,
who later provided the French
translation for Illustrations of
Natural History (at least the
rst two volumes). Using Har-
ris’ copper plate, da Costa had
250 prints of G. goliatus struck
and colored, but the book was
never published. Da Costa was
soon after found guilty of em-
bezzlement and was forced to
sell his entire library to repay
the debt. Drury bought the cop-
per plate of G. goliatus in Feb-
ruary 1768 (Noblett 1988). In
November that year, da Costa
was sentenced to ve years in
prison for failing to fulll the
debt (Rousseau and Haycock
2000). For Plate XXXI of Drury
Figs. 16-19. Original drawings* and comparative gures. 16, Neotropical Lepidoptera by M.
Harris for Pl. XVI of Drury (1782). 17, Thysania zenobia (Cramer) by M. Gartside for Pl. XXX-
IX of Drury (1782). 18, Chrysiridia rhipheus (Drury) (top, bottom) by Harris for Pl. XXIII of
Drury (1773); a, enlarged head of dorsal gure; b, enlarged head from Harris’ gure of Papilio
nireus L. for Pl. IV of Drury (1773). 19, male C. rhipheus, dorsal (top) and ventral; Beparasy
(Mangarivotra), Moramanga, Madagascar, 1978; wings digitally repositioned to match Harris’
drawing (J. Calhoun coll.). (*Courtesy Oak Spring Garden Foundation.)

71
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Summer 2023 News of The Lepidopterists’ Society
Volume 65, Number 2
(1770), Harris changed the plate number and colored
the rst prints in April 1769 (Hancock and Douglas
2009). The original drawing most accurately portrays
this specimen as it appeared within one year of being
found. It is the earliest known illustration of the speci-
men, predating all other representations mentioned by
Hancock and Douglas (2009).
Acknowledgments. I express my most sincere thanks to
Tony Willis of the Oak Spring Garden Library for generously
providing images and information, and for granting permission
to reproduce original drawings from their collections. Jim Morris
expertly digitized the drawings. For kindly providing literature,
information, or other support, I thank Frances Belsham, Selby
Kiffer, and William Passey (Sotheby’s, London); Molly B. Dillon
(Yale University Library); Jane Gallagher (John Rylands
Research Institute and Library); Rebecca Higgins and Laura
J. Smith (Leeds University Libraries); Rosie Jones (Library
and Archives, The Natural History Museum, London), Shinichi
Nakahara (Harvard University); and Suzanne A. Smailes
(Thomas Library, Wittenberg University).
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Foundation.)

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