Mark Catesby and the Natural Imagery of the Americas

If you follow us on Instagram, you’re surely aware of our #windowboxwednesday posts, in which we snap a picture or two of our favorite window boxes that we’ve spotted around downtown Charleston, overflowing with flowers and greenery at all times of the year. Calling these tiny cultivated gardens “nature” may be a bit of a stretch, but we love that throughout history people have admired the plants, animals, and other natural treasures of the lowcountry.

One of the earliest to do so with a professional eye was Mark Catesby, an English naturalist and illustrator who studied the flora and fauna of the English colonies. He shared his discoveries and records with the Royal Society, an organization commissioned by King Charles II in 1660 to support the research of plants and animals around the world. Catesby also published the first account of New World plants and animals in his Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands in 1729.

Born in Essex in 1683, Catesby made his first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from England to North America in 1712. For seven years he lived in Virginia, gathering and sending numerous plant and animal specimens to the Royal Society. Catesby returned to England in 1719 and was home for only a short time before he accepted a commission from the Royal Society to continue collecting and identifying specimens of plants and animals. He was contracted by Hans Sloane, a young member of the Royal Society who was an avid collector and documentarian, and whose collection of specimens formed the foundation of the collections of the British Museum and London’s Natural History Museum. 

On this next expedition, Catesby was sent to the English colony of South Carolina. In the Council Minutes for the Royal Society on Oct. 20, 1720, Francis Nicholson (who would later serve as the first Royal Governor of South Carolina) was quoted that Catesby was “a very proper person to observe the Rarities of [South Carolina] for the uses and purposes of the Society … [and granted him] the Pension of Twenty Pounds per Annum during his Government there.” (Converting currency from the colonial era is extremely difficult for many reasons, but £20 in 1720, by one calculation, comes to between $4,000 and $5,000 in 2020 USD). In addition to the support from Sloane and Nicholson, Catesby was friends with Thomas Cooper, to whom Catesby referred as a “Dr of Physick.” Born in Somerset, England in 1689, Cooper received a college degree from the University of Oxford in 1720 before making his way to Charles Town. Here, he hosted Catesby upon the naturalist’s arrival in May of 1722

Through Sloane, Nicholson, and Cooper, Catesby also had connections to visit and stay at the plantations owned by James Moore (Boochawee), Robert Johnson (Silk Hope), Thomas Waring (Pine Hill), William Bull (Ashley Hall), William Blake (Newington), and Alexander Skene (New Skene). As he traveled throughout the region, he collected specimens and documented his observations of the flora and fauna he encountered.

By 1723, Catesby’s explorations took him as far south as Fort Moore on the Savannah River.

English settlers were on relatively good terms with the Chickasaws, and that relationship dictated Catesby’s course exploring the rivers, streams, and forests south of Charlestowne. Catesby needed the tribe’s protection in case of confrontations with the Choctaw nation, who maintained an alliance with the region’s French traders to the west and north. Traveling without protection from Indigenous people could easily have meant death rather than the chance to study and collect specimens of plants and animals.

Upon his return to Charles Town, Catesby convinced Cooper that they should undertake an

exploration of Mexico. Catesby wrote to Sloane in August 1724 requesting financial support: “Here is a Gentleman who practices Phisick/his name is Couper and is of Wadham

Colledge in Oxford and tho’ he has extraordinary business in his profession and by far

the best of Any Body in this Country, He designes to leave it through a desire of seeing

the remote parts of this Continent in order to improve Natural knowledge, and as his

Genius bends Most to the Mathematicks, he proposes to communicate to the R:Society

what observations he makes in Astronomy, And perticularly in his way of practices.”

Sloane agreed to assist Catesby and Cooper, but they failed to gain a permit from the

Spanish government to explore the territory. Cooper and Catesby then parted ways, and Catesby returned to England via the Bahamas. 

Catesby returned safely to England in 1725 and went to work on a publication of descriptions and imagery of plants and animals rather than earning income from exploring for and collecting specimens. To support his family and publish his book, Catesby worked as a gardener and taught himself how to engrave his drawings. It took Catesby 18 years of writing, drawing, consulting, engraving, printing, and selling subscriptions to complete The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Island.

The two hundred plates that Catesby created for the publication of The Natural History of

Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Island were the first comprehensive collection of images and

descriptions of North America’s flora and fauna. England’s King George III (1738-1820)

purchased Catesby’s original 200 plates, and they are still in the collection of the Royal Library.

Of the animals that Catesby drew and named, most were birds. “There being a greater

Variety of the feather’d Kind than of any other Animals (at least to be come at) and excelling in

the Beauty of the Colours, besides having oftenest relation to the Plants on which they feed and

frequent; I was in duced chiefly [sic] (so far as I could) to compleat [sic] an Account of them.”

Today, The Charleston Library Society at 164 King Street holds one of the 150 or so first editions of Mark Catesby’s The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Island.

Interested in learning more? Join us on our Natural History of Charleston & The Lowcountry tour with naturalist Layton Register, offered weekly & by request. 

Researched & written by Layton Register. Edited by Anna Zlotnicki.