Scientists didn’t always have fancy cameras. Capturing an image of their specimens or experiments used to be a huge ordeal. Before the modern era, scientists were also artists. They illustrated what they saw in the wild or in the laboratory.
Most scientists nowadays are probably happy they don’t need to double major in art. It is fascinating though to imagine a scientist working for hours and hours on pictures for their next book or publication. Here are a few of our favorite old school science drawings.
Animal species through time. From Popular Science Monthly, September 1905.
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Moths from the early…