John Abbot (1751) was an American

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and artist. He was the first artist in the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

to create an extensive series of insect drawings and to show insects in all stages of development. In addition to more than 3,000 insect illustrations, he also produced drawings of birds and plants. To facilitate his work he collected a great number of insects and reared thousands more. He was considered one of the best insect illustrators of his era and his art and insect collections were sold to an eager market in London.Sorensen 2005Mallis 1971

Early life

By his own recollection, Abbot was born in London on June 1, 1751 but parish records indicate his birthday on May 31. He was the eldest son of James Abbot, a successful attorney, and Ann (Clousinger) Abbot. He grew up in a fashionable London neighborhood of Bennet Street, St. James, and spent part of his time at his family's country house. He was tutored at home and showed an early interest in collecting and drawing. Abbot studied art with Jacob Bonneau and his first known entomological paintings were created in 1766. Abbot's technique improved rapidly and in a few years he was producing some of the best entomological illustrations of the eighteenth-century.Wilkinson 1984 The Russian naturalist

Andrey Avinoff Andrey Avinoff (14 February 1884 – 16 July 1949) was an internationally-known artist, lepidopterist, Curator, museum director, professor, bibliophile and iconographer, who served as the director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pit ...

, an accomplished artist himself, described Abbot's work as "among the masterpieces of entomological portraiture". Sometime after 1767, Bonneau used his connections to introduce his talented student to

Dru Drury Dru Drury (4 February 1725 – 15 January 1804) was a British collector of natural history specimens and an entomologist. He received specimens collected from across the world through a network of ship's officers and collectors including Henry ...

, a wealthy naturalist and owner of one of the best insect collections in England. Drury gave Abbot access to his collection and introduced him to other prominent entomologists and naturalists in London. His interest in natural history art was boosted after he received a gift of Catesby's Natural History of Carolina from Lady Sarah Honywood (widow of Sir Philip Honywood). Drury and other members of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

recognized his talent as an illustrator and encouraged him to go to America to collect insects. Abbot was eager for the adventure and settled on Virginia as his destination. He made arrangements with Thomas Martyn and John Francillon, both naturalists and dealers in natural history collections, to purchase whatever specimens he might ship back to London.

Virginia

Abbot set sail for Jamestown in July 1773. On the voyage he befriended the Goodall family from Virginia and agreed to stay with them at their plantation in Hanover County. He started collecting insects immediately on arrival but his first few years were difficult. The diversity and number of insects in Virginia did not meet his expectations and two of his first three shipments back to London were lost at sea. In addition, politics in Virginia were becoming increasingly divisive as

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

approached. Abbot considered returning to London and Drury encouraged him to travel to Surinam. Instead he decided to join members of the Goodall family and head down to Georgia where he hoped to avoid the upcoming war and find better opportunities for collecting specimens.Sterling 1997

Georgia

Abbot left Virginia in December 1775, travelling overland in harsh winter weather. When he arrived in Georgia, he again stayed with the Goodall family in a log cabin constructed about 100 miles south of Augusta. Although he had hoped to escape the war, hostilities broke out almost as soon as he had settled in Georgia. Abbot served with the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

as a private in the 3rd Georgia Regiment. As a veteran after the war he was granted 575 acres of land where he established a plantation. At some point, Abbot married Penelope Warren and they had one son, John Abbot Jr., in 1779. Abbot became a successful planter and lived with his family in a large and comfortable house in Burke County. He also continued his work as a naturalist, exploring the Ogeechee and

Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the Southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and South Carolina. The river flows from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, ...

basins as well as the coastal area near the port of Savannah. His insect collections and watercolor illustrations were in great demand. In 1797, ''The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia... Collected from the Observations of Mr. John Abbot'' was edited by James Edward Smith and published in two volumes. It was the first major work on North American insects and contained 104 etchings of watercolors of species that Abbot had collected. Abbot had a change of fortune around 1795; his wife died and he had some sort of financial difficulties. The details are unknown but by 1806 he was living with his son in Savannah and teaching school to supplement his income. However, he continued his work as a naturalist with a new focus on birds. In the early 1790s he became interested in ornithology and completed more than 1,300 bird illustrations in his lifetime. He collaborated with ornithologist Alexander Wilson and the two of them exchanged a good deal of data on birds. In 1818 Abbot moved to Bulloch County where he continued to live and work for the rest of his life. as he grew older both his vision and hearing were impaired. His last known shipment of insects occurred in 1836. He died sometime in 1840 or early 1841.

Legacy

He produced thousands of insect illustrations, as well as several sets of bird illustrations. The majority are preserved in the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

, London, the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

and Houghton Library at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. Other repositories of his drawings include

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

, and the Alexander Turnbull Library. Some have been dispersed following various auctions that included his drawings. The bird and insect specimens that he collected were sent to Britain and Europe, but a certain number were lost at sea, which discouraged him. He nonetheless continued to collect and paint specimens until at least 1835. The only publication to bear his name was ''The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia'', whose primary author was James Edward Smith. It included 104 plates that were reproduced from original drawings by John Abbot, which are now preserved at

. Abbot also provided most of the observations published in the book. First appearing in 1797, new copies of the book were issued for thirty years. As a result of this publication including the name of a type of oak inhabited by insects Abbot researched, his legacy includes credit in the

International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

(IPNI) as a co-publisher (with Smith) of ''Quercus lobulata'', credited as a discovery by

Daniel Solander Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Sweden, Swedish naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot o ...

, though later acknowledged as a synonym for the previously discovered ''

Quercus stellata ''Quercus stellata'', the post oak or iron oak, is a North American species of oak in the white oak section. It is a slow-growing oak that lives in dry areas on the edges of fields, tops of ridges, and also grows in poor soils, and is resistan ...

'', credited to

Friedrich Adam Julius von Wangenheim Friedrich Adam Julius von Wangenheim (8 February 1749 Sonneborn – 25 March 1800 Gumbinnen) was a German botanist specializing in forestry, and was the citing authority for a number of described eastern North American plant species. He was als ...

. For this reason, Abbot has been assigned the taxonomic author abbreviation Abbot for use in

botanical nomenclature Botanical nomenclature is the formal, scientific naming of plants. It is related to, but distinct from taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. Plant taxonomy is concerned with grouping and classifying plants; Botany, botanical nomenclature then provides na ...

. From 1829 to 1837, renowned French entomologist

Jean Baptiste Boisduval Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval (24 June 1799 – 30 December 1879) was a French lepidopterist, botanist, and physician. He was one of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, and was the co-founder of the Société ento ...

and wealthy American naturalist

John Eatton Le Conte John Eatton Le Conte Jr. (sometimes John Eatton LeConte or John Eaton Leconte) (February 22, 1784 – November 21, 1860) was an American natural history, naturalist. He was born near Shrewsbury, New Jersey, Shrewsbury, New Jersey, the son o ...

published installments of ''Histoire Générale et Iconographie des Lépidoptères et des Chenilles de l'Amérique Septentrionale''. This publication included 78 hand-colored engraved plates, most created from original drawings by John Abbot. The majority of these original drawings are now deposited at the

. A collection of 130 watercolors of birds, are held by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

. Ornithologist Elsa G. Allen promoted Abbot's ornithological work in articles published in ''The Auk'', and in her 1951 book ''The History of American Ornithology Before Audubon''. In 1957, a ceremony in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...

was held in Abbott's honor, and involved Allen unveiling a memorial dedicated to him. At the time of her death, Allen was working on a biography of Abbott, for which she received a grant from the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. One critic said that Abbot was Allen's "peculiar province".

Works

*with James Edward Smith, ''The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia Collected from Observations by John Abbot'' (1797) (2 volumes, 104 plates). *''Drawings of the Insects of Georgia, in America'' (1792–1804) (17 volumes, unpublished). *Original drawings for Jean Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval's and

's ''Histoire Générale et Iconographie des Lépidoptères et des Chenilles de l'Amérique septentrionale'' (1833).

References

Sources

External links

*
Guide to John Abbot's works
at

Houghton Library Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, Lamont Library, and Loeb House, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library s ...

, Harvard University * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abbot, John 1751 births 1840s deaths American botanists American entomologists American ornithologists Entomologists from London People from colonial Virginia Entomological artists British emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies 18th-century American male artists 19th-century American male artists 18th-century American illustrators 19th-century American illustrators