naturalist, author, artist, engraver, hand painter
Edward Donovan
 (1768 – 1837)
  
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Edward Donovan was born in Cork, Ireland, and when aged 21, he moved to London. There he started collecting natural history specimens, especially purchased at auctions of specimens from voyages of exploration. His collection became so large that he opened the London Museum and Institute of Natural History to house it.

He wrote a number of natural history books, including Insects of New Holland, New Zealand, New Guinea, Otaheite, and Other Islands in the Indian, Southern and Pacific Oceans (1805). Copies of some the illustrations in this book have been used in this website.

He drew the insects from actual specimens for the plates of illustrations in the book, and engraved the copper plates himself from the paintings. He hand-painted the resulting engravings for the plates in the book. He sold the book through the publishers Rivington & Co.

A copy of an illustration in this website by Edward Donovan :


Paramsacta marginata



in progress


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(written 16 September 2026)