Mark Catesby - Life and works

Naturalist, born in Sudbury, Suffolk, E England, UK. He studied natural history in London and first came to America in 1712. He lived in Virginia for seven years and diligently sent collections of plants and seeds to England, where he returned in 1719. From 1722 he was back in America, travelling in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida to observe the region's natural life. In England from 1726, he wrote and illustrated The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, published at intervals in 1731–48.

Mark Catesby (April 3, 1683 - December 1749) was an English naturalist. Between 1731 and 1743 Catesby published his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first published account of the flora and fauna of North America.

Life and works

Catesby was baptised at Castle Hedingham, Essex. An acquaintance with the naturalist John Ray led to his becoming interested in natural history. Catesby studied natural history in London before going to stay with his sister in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1712.

Catesby had collected seeds and botanical specimens in Virginia, which he had sent to a Hoxton nurseryman. This made his name known to other scientists in England, and in 1722 he was recommended by William Sherard to undertake a plant-collecting expedition to Carolina on behalf of the Royal Society. Catesby settled in Charlestown, and travelled to other parts of eastern North America and the West Indies, collecting plants and birds. Catesby returned to England in 1726.

Catesby spent the next seventeen years preparing his Natural History. Catesby was the first to use folio-sized coloured plates in natural history books. The first eight plates had no backgrounds, but from then on Catesby included plants with his animals. Catesby died just before Christmas 1749, and was buried on December 23rd.

Carolus Linnaeus included much of the information in the Natural History in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae (1758).