Henry De la Beche’s pioneering paleoecological illustration, Duria antiquior

This chapter has no abstract. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PALEONTOLOGICAL ART A scientific discipline cannot exist without a written and visual language; therefore, if we “want to understand what draws things together,” we must investigate “what draws things together” (Latour, 1990, p. 60). The visual language of geology— and its subdiscipline, paleontology—helped establish an optical consistency, or standardized visual representation, for the science (Rudwick, 1976, 1992). ...

Drawing things together with paleontological art

Clary

Rosenberg

Evans³

2022

The present is the key to the paleo-past: Charles R. Knight’s reconstruction of extinct beasts for the Field Museum, Chicago

Clary

2022

Although he was legally blind, Charles R. Knight (1874–1953) established himself as the premier paleontological artist in the early 1900s. When the Field Museum, Chicago, commissioned a series of large paintings to document the evolution of life, Knight was the obvious choice. Knight considered himself an artist guided by science; he researched and illustrated living animals and modern landscapes to better understand and represent extinct life forms within their paleoecosystems. Knight began the process by examining fossil skeletons; he then constructed small models to recreate the animals’ life anatomy and investigate lighting. Once details were finalized, Knight supervised assistants to transfer the study painting to the final mural. The Field Museum mural process, a monumental task of translating science into public art, was accompanied by a synergistic tension between Knight, who wanted full control over his artwork, and the museum’s scientific staff; the correct position of an Eocene whale’s tail—whether uplifted or not—documents a critical example. Although modern scientific understanding has rendered some of Knight’s representations obsolete, the majority of his 28 murals remain on display in the Field Museum’s Evolving Planet exhibit. Museum educators contrast these murals with contemporary paleontological knowledge, thereby demonstrating scientific progress for better public understanding of the nature of science.

Illustrating the unknowable: Women paleoartists who drew ancient vertebrates

Turner¹,

Berta²

2022

Women have contributed to “paleoart” working in collaboration with scientists, using vertebrate fossils to reconstruct vanished worlds, and directly shaping the way humans imagine the distant past. “Backboned” animals of former times have been portrayed singly or in groups and were often set in landscape scenes. Women paleoartists in America and Europe began working in the nineteenth century often through family association, such as pioneers Orra White Hitchcock, Graceanna Lewis, and Mary Morland Buckland. Mainly using traditional two-dimensional styles, they portrayed ancient vertebrate fossils in graphite and ink drawings. Paleoartist Alice Bolingbroke Woodward introduced vibrant pen and watercolor reconstructions. Although female paleoartists were initially largely unrecognized, in the twentieth cen tury they gained notice by illustrating important books on prehistoric vertebrate life. Paid employment and college and university training increased by the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, with larger institutions providing stable jobs. The “Dinosaur Renaissance” of the late 1960s gave a boost to new paleo-artistry. Women paleo artists became more prominent in the later twentieth to twenty-first centuries with the development of new art techniques, computer-based art, and use of the internet. Increasingly, there is encouragement and support for women paleoartists through the Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) movement.