Between 1729 and 1747, the English naturalist Mark Catesby devoted himself to the preparation of the earliest known, major,illustrated publication on the natural history of theBritish Colonies of North America. Tutored in his youth by one of the original, pre-eminent naturalists, John Ray, Catesby had undertaken his first expedition to the New World 'to search after Plants, and other Productions of Nature', between the years of 1712 and 1719. On this venture he explored Virginia, from the tidewater region to the first ranges of the Appalachians, and inspired by the first volume of Sir Hans Sloane's The Natural History of Jamaica (1707), he made a voyage to the West Indies.    MORE >>