Edward Lear is best remembered today as a writer of much-loved nonsense verse, but he was also one of his generation’s most accomplished ornithological illustrators. Join our librarian Will Beharrell as we explore his undoubted masterpiece: his 42 illustrations of the Psittacidae, or parrots. As we turn the pages of this remarkable book - published when the author was barely out of his teens - we will learn about the difficult circumstances of its production, the troubled life of the man who made it, and Lear’s links to the scientific, scholarly, and artistic communities of his day.
Will Beharrell is the Librarian of the Linnean Society of London, a learned society devoted to natural history, and the world’s oldest active biological society. He has nearly a decade’s experience in specialist and rare books collections, having worked for Magdalen College, All Souls College, Merton College, The Bodleian Libraries, and the English Faculty Library-all at the University of Oxford. He currently manages the Linnean Society’s library service, and facilitates use of its printed book collections for research, public engagement, and education. Since June 2019 he has acted as administrator for the Linnaeus Link project, an international effort to create a union catalogue of material by and about the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, in collaboration with partner institutions around the world.
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The Linnean Society works to inform, involve and inspire people of all ages about nature and its wider interactions through our collections, programmes and publications. Founded in 1788, the Society takes its name from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
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