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Museum has it covered with natural history bird books
The third object in the spotlight is Maidstone
Museum’s Gould book collection.
John Gould was a self-taught ornithologist who
was born in 1804. He produced 41 large, illustrated volumes of work
with 3,000 colour plates that rank among the world’s finest natural
history books. His wife, a talented artist and lithographer, helped
him with the artwork.
He travelled to New Guinea and Australia,
where he produced his most famous work - ‘The Birds of Australia’
(1840 and 1848). While his book on ‘Birds of Asia’ was based on
sketches of birds brought back to England. He died in 1881.
The rare natural history books will help the
150th Kaleidoscope exhibition come to life.
Curator of Natural History, Dr Ed Jarzembowski
said: “The 150th birthday is a great opportunity to get collections
on show that would otherwise languish in the stores and is a last
chance to view them before we pack them up for the East Wing
redevelopment.”
