“Cassell’s Natural History” is a multi-volume late-Victorian encyclopedic natural history of animals designed for general readers and amateur naturalists. It presents zoological knowledge of the time in clear, descriptive prose with extensive illustrations, combining facts about animal form, behaviour, habitat, and classification. Rather than opening with abstract taxonomy, the work introduces animals by describing their appearance and habits first, then situates them within broader scientific groupings. It aims to bridge zoology and comparative anatomy, explaining how internal structure relates to external form and lifestyle. The set covers major animal groups across six volumes, with contributions from several naturalists and detailed accounts of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and other taxa, interweaving anatomical explanation with observations of behaviour and distribution.
The artist for this panel seems to be “C.B.,” but that’s all I’ve got for now.
The books are available on Project Gutenberg and similar sources. Here’s some more examples of the art: [Google Images Collection]
Btw, I poached this one from a great Tumblr stream. Check it out!
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/vintage illustration
Oh thats so cool! Thanks ❤️
Hadn’t noticed your sidebar already had a few links!