Mark Catesby: Life, Natural History & Art Prints
The English naturalist who painted the birds of Carolina alive. The story of Mark Catesby from Essex to Virginia, Charleston and the Bahamas, the 220 plates of The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, from the Carolina parakeet to the passenger pigeon and the bison, with where to see his work and how to hang Mark Catesby art prints at home. By Artwork Culture.
Mark Catesby (1683–1749) was an English naturalist and artist who spent more than ten years in colonial Virginia, Carolina and the Bahamas, drawing birds, plants, snakes, fish and insects from life. His Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1729–1747), with 220 plates he etched himself, was the first great illustrated book on the wildlife of North America, and it still shapes how we picture the birds of the American South.
This guide follows Catesby from an Essex village to Williamsburg, Charleston and the Bahamas, then back to London to make his book. It covers his famous plates, from the Carolina parakeet and the ivory-billed woodpecker to the bison and the flamingo, his legacy for science and art, where to see his work and how to hang Catesby prints at home. Our Mark Catesby collection holds 404 archival prints.
Who Was Mark Catesby?
Catesby went to America as a collector and became an artist to show what he found. He was sent to the American colonies to collect seeds and specimens for English gardeners and scientists, and he drew what he found so that people in Europe could see living animals and plants they had only known as dried skins and pressed leaves. He then taught himself to etch so he could print the pictures without paying engravers. The prints in our Mark Catesby collection come from that book and its later editions.
How to spot a Catesby plate:
- An animal with its plant: a bird perched on the tree or shrub it lives in or feeds on, such as the Baltimore oriole on a tulip tree.
- Flat, bold shapes: strong outlines and clear side views, more like a field guide than a painting, with little or no background.
- Two names in the title: a Latin description and an English name for each animal and plant, written long before Linnaeus’s two-word names.
- American wildlife: cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, rattlesnakes, alligators, turtles and the bright reef fish of the Bahamas.
- Etched line and watercolour: fine etched lines coloured by hand, on a large folio sheet.
From Essex to Virginia
Catesby was born on 24 March 1683 in Castle Hedingham, Essex, the son of John Catesby, a gentleman farmer and local politician, and Elizabeth Jekyll. As a young man he met John Ray, the leading English naturalist of the day. That friendship started his interest in plants and animals.
In 1712 he sailed to Williamsburg, Virginia, with his sister Elizabeth, who had married Dr William Cocke. Catesby stayed seven years. He stayed with the planter and diarist William Byrd II, visited the West Indies in 1714, and sent seeds and plants back to England. Those Virginia plants made his name known to English gardeners, and his early drawings caught the eye of collectors in London.
Carolina and the Bahamas
Back in England in 1719, Catesby found patrons. The botanist William Sherard and other members of the Royal Society paid him to return to America to collect plants, seeds and animals for them. He landed in Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1722 and spent the next three years exploring the coast and the backcountry, from the rice plantations to the edge of the mountains.
He drew as he went. Plants he drew fresh, on the day they were gathered, and birds he painted alive wherever he could. He wrote that he made several journeys with Native Americans up the rivers toward the mountains, relying on their guidance, and the plantations he stayed on ran on enslaved labour; modern historians read his book with both in view.
In 1725–26 he sailed to the Bahamas. There he drew flamingos against the island shore, sea turtles such as the green turtle and the brilliant reef fish of the islands, including the angel fish and the parrot fish, painted from fresh catches. He returned to England in 1726 with a trunk of drawings and specimens.
The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands
Catesby wanted a large, lavish book, but professional engravers cost too much. So he took lessons in etching from the French-born artist Joseph Goupy and etched the copper plates himself. His friend Peter Collinson, a Quaker cloth merchant and plant lover, lent him money without interest, and subscribers paid by the part: two guineas for coloured plates, one for plain.
The first part was ready in May 1729 and presented to Queen Caroline. The book came out in eleven parts: the first volume was finished in 1732 (dated 1731), the second in 1743, and an Appendix of 20 plates followed in 1747, using material sent by the Pennsylvania botanist John Bartram and others. In all there were 220 plates of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and plants, with text in English and French. Only about 180 to 200 copies of the first edition were made.
A few plates came from friends: the magnolia above was drawn by Georg Dionysius Ehret, whose own botanical prints are in our collection. Cromwell Mortimer, secretary of the Royal Society, called the book “the most magnificent Work I know of, since the Art of Printing has been discovered.” The Royal Society elected Catesby a Fellow in 1733.
Birds Drawn from Life
Birds are the heart of the book. In his preface Catesby wrote that he painted “the Animals, particularly the birds, … while alive (except a very few)”, and he posed each one on a plant from its habitat. The red bird (northern cardinal) sits on a hickory, the crested jay (blue jay) on a smilax vine, the painted finch (painted bunting) on a loblolly bay and the mock-bird on a flowering dogwood.
Some of his birds are now gone. The Pigeon of Passage is the first published picture of the passenger pigeon; the last one, Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. The Parrot of Carolina, shown on this page on a sprig of bald cypress, is the Carolina parakeet, the only parrot native to the eastern United States, which died out in the early 20th century.
The Largest White-billed Woodpecker is the ivory-billed woodpecker, which has not been confirmed in the United States since the 1940s. Catesby noted that Native Americans prized its white bills. He was also one of the first to argue that birds migrate rather than hibernate, in a paper he read to the Royal Society in 1747, “Of birds of passage.”
Bison, Snakes, Fish and Frogs
Catesby drew much more than birds. His second volume turns to fish, snakes, turtles, insects and mammals, many of them shown for the first time in print.
Snakes fascinated him. The Rattle-Snake shows the coiled snake with a cross-section of its rattle, a rattle of 24 joints and a fang, almost like a museum display. Look too for the alligator, the corn snake and the hog-nose snake.
The Bull-Frog, stretched beside a lady’s slipper orchid, is now named after him: the American bullfrog is Lithobates catesbeianus. And among the insects is a large swallowtail butterfly on a Virginia shrub, one of the plates that make his book a forerunner of later butterfly art.
Catesby’s Legacy
Catesby married Elizabeth Rowland in 1747, after they had lived together for many years and raised a family, and he died in London on 23 December 1749. A gardening book, Hortus Britanno-Americanus, followed after his death in 1763. He is credited with bringing the catalpa tree into European gardens, and the plant genus Catesbaea was named for him.
His biggest scientific legacy came through Carl Linnaeus, who used the Natural History to name American plants and animals. Linnaeus cited 131 of Catesby’s plants in Species Plantarum (1753) and referred to Catesby 139 times in the 1758 Systema Naturae, so many North American birds still carry names based on Catesby’s plates.
The book lived on in new editions. George Edwards, himself a bird artist, issued a second edition in 1754 from the original copper plates, and a third in 1771 added Linnaean names. In Nuremberg, a German and Latin edition with re-engraved plates appeared from 1750 under the title Piscium, serpentum, insectorum…; our prints include its plates numbered 1 to 109. Catesby set the pattern for American bird art that Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon followed, and, like Maria Sibylla Merian before him, he showed animals with the plants they live on.
Famous Mark Catesby Plates
Nine plates to start with, all in our collection:
Carolina parakeet
The Parrot of Carolina. A green parakeet with a yellow and orange head on bald cypress. Colourful, rare and the best-known Catesby image.
Ivory-billed woodpecker
The Largest White-billed Woodpecker. A tall, graphic plate of black, white and red, strong in a narrow space.
Passenger pigeon
The Pigeon of Passage. The first published picture of the passenger pigeon, on red oak.
Bald eagle
The White-headed Eagle. The eagle swoops with a fish in its talons while an osprey flies above, the scene Catesby described of eagles robbing the fishing hawk. Also in a later version.
Flamingo
The Flamingo. A pink flamingo beside branching coral on a Bahamas shore, with a companion plate of the flamingo’s bill at full size.
Blue jay
The Crested Jay. A blue jay with black berries of smilax, wide and lively.
Bison
Bison Americanus. The bison under bristly locust, from the Appendix.
Southern magnolia
Magnolia altissima. Ehret’s great white magnolia on a dark ground, the most dramatic plant plate in the book.
Bullfrog
The Bull-Frog. The frog named after Catesby, leaping beside a lady’s slipper.
What Our Mark Catesby Prints Show
All 404 prints in our collection come from Catesby’s Natural History and its editions. Most carry the plate’s original title, a Latin description followed by the English name, such as “Nux juglans Virginiana alba &c., The Hiccory Tree; The Pig-nut; Coccothraustes ruber, The red Bird.”. A second group comes from the Nuremberg edition and is titled by plate number, and a third uses English names with the Linnaean names added in later editions.
The Nuremberg plates follow the second half of Catesby’s book, so they are mostly fish, snakes, insects and plants, such as Plate 50, a pair of Bahamas fish. For birds, start with the original-title prints.
Where to See Catesby’s Work
Catesby’s watercolours and books are works on paper, so they are kept out of the light and shown only in temporary displays. Check before you go.
The main places to look:
Royal Library, Windsor Castle
Catesby’s original watercolours are in the Royal Collection. George III bought them in 1768, bound into a unique three-volume copy of the book; they are now mounted separately and shown in occasional exhibitions.
Natural History Museum, London
Many of the dried plants Catesby collected in Carolina for his patrons survive in the Sloane Herbarium, part of the museum’s botanical collections.
Online: Biodiversity Heritage Library
All three English editions (first, 1754 and 1771) have been digitised and can be read page by page for free.
How to Decorate with Catesby Prints
- Living room: a pair of tall bird plates, such as the ivory-billed woodpecker and the Carolina parakeet, either side of a window or fireplace.
- Southern home or porch room: the magnolia, the mockingbird and dogwood and the cardinal bring the Carolina garden indoors.
- Beach house or bathroom: the Bahamas fish, angel fish and parrot fish, with the flamingo and the green turtle.
- Study or library: a grid of six or nine bird plates reads like pages from an old folio; add Audubon or John Gould for a full bird wall, or browse all bird art prints.
- Garden room: mix plant-and-bird plates with Ehret and Redouté or our botanical art prints.
- Frames and mats: cream mats match the paper; walnut or oak frames suit the bird plates, thin gold the magnolia.
- Sizes: the plates were folio size, so they hold detail well at 18×24 inches and above; the wide blue jay and eagle suit a sofa or bed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Mark Catesby?
Mark Catesby (1683–1749) was an English naturalist and artist who explored Virginia (1712–1719), South Carolina (from 1722) and the Bahamas (1725–26), then published The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1729–1747), the first major illustrated book on North American wildlife.
What is The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands?
It is Catesby’s two-volume folio book, issued in eleven parts from 1729 to 1747, with 220 hand-coloured etchings of birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, insects and plants and text in English and French. Catesby etched most plates himself. Later editions followed in 1754 and 1771.
Did Mark Catesby paint birds from life?
Yes, wherever he could. In his preface he wrote that he painted the animals, particularly the birds, while alive except for a very few, and that he drew plants while fresh. He also posed each bird on a plant from its habitat.
Which extinct birds did Catesby paint?
His book includes the first published picture of the passenger pigeon, extinct since 1914, and early images of the Carolina parakeet, extinct in the early 20th century, and the ivory-billed woodpecker, not confirmed in the United States since the 1940s.
How did Catesby influence Audubon?
Catesby set the pattern of large, life-like bird plates with plants from the bird’s habitat, a century before John James Audubon’s Birds of America. Through Linnaeus, his plates also supplied the basis for many scientific names of North American birds.
Where can I see Catesby’s original watercolours?
His original watercolours are in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, bought by George III in 1768, and are shown in occasional exhibitions. The printed book can be read online through the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Where can I buy Mark Catesby art prints?
Artwork Culture sells 404 archival Mark Catesby wall art prints, including the Carolina parakeet, ivory-billed woodpecker, passenger pigeon, flamingo, bison and the Bahamas fish, in sizes from 4×6 to 40×60 inches. Browse the Mark Catesby collection.
Written by Artwork Culture. Image credits: all artwork images are Artwork Culture product photos of Mark Catesby prints from The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1729–1747) and its later editions; the magnolia plate was drawn by Georg Dionysius Ehret. Facts follow Wikipedia and Wikidata (October 2026), the Biodiversity Heritage Library on the three editions and Linnaeus, the Royal Collection Trust on the original watercolours and the South Carolina Encyclopedia for Catesby’s preface. Museum displays change, so confirm before you visit.