Born around 1808, Jacques Burkhardt was a naturalist, an explorer, and the personal assistant to famed scientist Louis Agassiz. Burkhardt was a well-known scientific artist, and his turtle illustrations are considered some of the most elaborate ever created. These illustrations (and many others) were the product of a fifteen-month collecting expedition to Brazil led by Agassiz, and Burkhardt was along to document the entire trip. On this site, visitors can look over 976 scientific drawings, which include 518 watercolor and/or pencil drawings of fishes and other vertebrates and invertebrates. Additionally, the archive also contains five portrait photographs of various party members, including Burkhardt, and a number of non-scientific drawings of Brazilian landscapes. The site is rounded out by the inclusion of a link to the complete Thayer Expedition Papers, courtesy of the Ernst Mayr Library at Harvard University.
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