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Hi,     12/21/2008

I have just seen an advance copy of a new documentary film -- "The Curious
Mister Catesby" -- and thought that members of ISEN-ASTC-L would want 
to know about it.

It's about the naturalist-artist, Mark Catesby, who--long before
Audubon--was exploring America and documenting American birds and
plants in a series of gorgeous hand-colored engravings. Catesby's
original drawings were only recently re-discovered in Windsor Castle!
When 18th century Europeans and colonial Americans talked about 
American wildlife, it was Catesby's images they had in their mind's 
eye (Jefferson read his copy with care).

I've got my own scholarly and curatorial reasons for finding the film absorbing
(Linnaeus and Kalm, the heroes of my exhibition at the NJ State Museum,
knew and respected Catesby).  But it's such an engaging combination of
science, history, art, and natural history footage that I think 
anyone, of any age, who is  interested in  colonial America, 18th 
century studies, wildlife -- especially birds (notably the 
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, thought extinct until 2008)--, Native 
Americans, medicinal plants, exploration, nature, or the environment 
would be excited by it. I am sure it would make a great public 
program.

The film's website, http://www.catesbytrust.org, has snippets of the
film and sample audio, information about Catesby's life, some of his
illustrations, and order information (I just noticed they've got a 
special deal on for the holidays).

I gather "The Curious Mister Catesby" will be shown on public 
television stations around the country at different times  -- but why 
wait and risk missing it?

With all best wishes of the season,

Karen

Karen Reeds, PhD, FLS  [log in to unmask]
Guest Curator, Come into a New World: Linnaeus & America
American Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia, February 15-July 1,
2007
Now showing at New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ,  through
Saturday Jan. 3, 2009
http://www.americanswedish.org/,
http://www.americanswedish.org/linnaeus.htm
http://www.nj.gov/state/museum/see_come-into-new-world.htm
Exhibition guide available from
http://www.dianepublishing.net/category_s/490.htm (p.4)

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