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Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History oil sketches of Illinois fishes: painting, 1878-1898

60 Items Full Collection Description

Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History oil sketches of Illinois fishes. Unsigned oil paintings on canvas representing 51 species in 38 genera of fishes. Handwritten notes on paintings indicate the species, location, and in some cases a date which may be a creation date or specimen collection date for the specimen represented in the painting. With one exception, the paintings are on the same type of canvas, and where dates are present, they are between 1878 and 1880. Most of these paintings are stenciled on the back with “Ill. State Lab. nat. Hist. Normal, Ill.”One item is dated 1898 and is on a different much thinner material than the others.

Oil sketches of fishes were reported to have been created to aid in the preparation of casts for the Illinois State Museum in Springfield by the State Laboratory of Natural History (Report of the Director of the State Laboratory of Natural History, Normal, Illinois for the Year Ending June 30, 1880, p. 3 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/61860220). All but the 1898 painting are likely to be the oil sketches referenced in this 1880 report.

RELATED ITEMS/COLLECTIONS:
Items were donated to the University Library from the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Editors image collection.

FINDING AID:
A printed finding aid with species name, ID numbers and additional documentation is housed with the physical items.