At head of title: American Museum of Natural History.

Second subtitle on case: Essays & plates.

Includes bibliographical references (page 161- 162) and index.

Foreword / by Ellen V. Futter Introduction / by Tom Bainoe. The first animal book / Richard Ellis First glimpses of an new world / David Hurst Thomas The Uranometria star atlas / Michael Shara Flora, fauna, and fifangha : Madagascar by Flacourt / Alex de Voogt On the strangeness of Hooke's Micrographia / David Kohn The buyer's guide to India, circa 1678 / George E. Harlow Made Merian / Paula Schrynemakers The apothecary's cabinet / Robert S. Voss Louis Renard and his book of extraordinary creatures / Mai Qaraman Reitmeyer Rösel von Rosenhof and his Natural history of frogs / Darrel Frost Knorr's fossil treasures from the Solnhofen / Neil H. Landman Martini and Chemnitz's Iconographic encyclopedia of mollusks / Louise M. Crowley Moses Harris : naturalist and artist / David Grimaldi Observing Vesuvius with Sir William Hamilton / James Webster The volumes of Cramer and Stoll : a timeless contribution to the science of butterflies and moths / James S. Miller Bloch's remarkable fishes / Melanie L.J. Stiassny A beautiful harvest : Herbst's crabs and crayfish / Bella Galil At the dawn of malacology : the salient and silent oeuvre of Giuseppe Saverio Poli / Ilya Tëmkin Pith paper butterfly souvenirs / Diana Shih Alexander Wilson and the birth of American ornithology / Mai Qaraman Reitmeyer
Egypt revealed / Nina J. Root Prince Maximillian zu Wied : a military man turned naturalist / Charles W. Myers Discovering a new world : François Péron's voyage to Australia / Richard Pearson From the depths of the sea : Risso's pioneering studies of deep-sea life / Bella Galil Lorenz Oken and his magical numerology tour / George F. Barrowclough Art in the service of science / Nina J. Root The first comprehensive description of the amphibians and reptiles of the world / Christopher J. Raxworthy Burritt's sky atlases / Neil deGrasse Tyson Alcide d'Orbigny : Darwin's rival naturalist / Niles Eldredge
Colonel McKenney's Indian gallery / Peter M. Whiteley Darwin's voyage of discovery / Nancy B. Simmons Schreber's world of mammals / Miriam T. Gross
Sailing to the South Pole : Dumont d'Urville and the discovery of East Antarctica / Ross D.E. MacPhee The last hurrah : Audubon and Bachman's mammals / Mary LeCroy Transported to another planet : John Gould's The mammals of Australia / Robin Beck The perfect performance of a particular kind of work / Eleanor Sterling Elliot's jewels : birds in paradise / Joel L. Cracraft Books for the naturalist in everyone / Barbara Rhodes Seeing is believing / Tom Baione. Fashion in the natural world / Stacy J. Schiff.

The Beauty of Natural Science Revealed! For the first time, "Natural Histories" allows readers a privileged glimpse of seldom seen, fully illustrated scientific tomes from the "American Museum of Natural History's Rare Book Collection" - a collection of over 450,000 volumes. Forty essays from the museum's top experts in a variety of natural science disciplines, from anthropology to zoology, accompany and discuss each rare tome's unique qualities and scientific contribution. Packaged with extraordinary prints suitable for framing and facsimile items inside bound-in envelopes, this deluxe edition will fascinate both natural science and art lovers alike.