GIF IT UP entry from Richard Naples in Washington, DC. Source material courtesy Smithsonian Librarie
GIF IT UP entry from Richard Naples in Washington, DC. Source material courtesy Smithsonian Libraries via the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Richard writes:In the year preceding the turn of the 17th century, Maria Sybilla Merian traveled with her daughter to the Dutch colony of Surinam in South America to carefully document the metamorphosis of the butterfly. Born in 1647, Merian was a budding entomologist even at the tender age of 13, spending her time collecting caterpillars and carefully observing their transformations into butterflies or moths. At a time when insects were poorly understood and often interpreted as evil or otherwise ominous, Merian blazed a path in entomology. In her career spanning decades, she left a lasting impact on the fields of entomology, naturalism, and scientific illustration, made even more remarkable considering she did so at a time when women were rarely educated let alone published. Her magnum opus, ‘Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium’ was first published in 1705, a few years after she was forced to return to Amsterdam from Surinam after contracting malaria. This GIF pulls from the 1730 edition. In considering what to submit for this contest, I knew right away that something from Maria Sybilla Merian’s 'Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium’ would be high on my list. Bringing to life these vignettes was a small effort in comparison to the amazing legacy of work left by this amazing woman. This GIF is made available under a CC-BY 3.0 License. -- source link
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