(under construction – more images and notes on the way!) [updated 6 Jan 2025]

Thomas Watling Drawings Collection, 1788-c. 1797 (No. 94)
Natural History Museum London

“An animal shot at Adventure Bay”
Mitchell Library, State Library NSW

“Animal of Adventure Bay”
Mitchell Library, State Library NSW

Thomas Watling Drawings Collection, 1788-c. 1797 (No. 93)
Natural History Museum London

Pl.10, watercolor on paper
State Library NSW

Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)

State Library Victoria

Heidelberg University Library

[1ST PUBLISHED SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION OF A PLATYPUS]
BHL

[1ST PUBLISHED SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION OF A PLATYPUS]
BHL




1800 Shaw / Heath – General Zoology, Or Systemic Natural History: Vol. I, Part 1: Mammalia
BHL


“Ducks Bill Beaver”
Page from a sketchbook of mammals, fish, and ethnographical objects, c. 1798-1800?
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery

Linnean Society of London

BHL

BHL

Natural History Museum London

Natural History Museum London

National Library of Australia

National Library of Australia
“An early description of the platypus with the author referring to Blumenbach’s article published in 1800 which gave its scientific name. Calkoen states he received another specimen, the first to arrive in Holland. He compares his specimen with Blumenbach’s description.” (NLA)

Meisterdrucke

drawing – 21.2 x 29.4 cm – watercolour and pencil
State Library NSW

drawing – 43.8 x 54.3 cm. – watercolour and gouache
State Library NSW

National Library of Australia

BHL

Heidelberg University Library

BHL

BHL







Bullock’s Museum drawings & watercolors of the Platypus Anatinus, 1814, by an unknown English artist
“William Bullock was a nineteenth-century naturalist and antiquarian, who established a museum of curiosities in northern England in the late 1790s, which moved to Liverpool in 1801. In 1812 Bullock moved his collections to London and the newly built Egyptian Temple (later Egyptian Hall), Piccadilly, which became an established London landmark, known as the London Museum. It closed in 1819, with some of the collection being auctioned, and some sold to the University of Edinburgh.”
State Library NSW
https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/Yold0LE9
https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1bGdejMY

BHL

BHL

Heidelberg University Library

Mémoire sur le genre Ornithorhinque (Ornithorhynchus Bl.)
National Library of Australia

watercolor, pen & ink on paper; 11 x 15.5 cm
National Library of Australia

BHL

Sebra Prints

Notes on the Natural History and Habits
of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus
National Library of Australia

Notes on the Natural History and Habits
of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus
National Library of Australia

On the Young of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus
Plate XXXII
National Library of Australia

On the Young of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus
Plate XXXIII
National Library of Australia

Bavarian State Library

BHL

BHL

BHL

Internet Archive

Internet Archive

BHL

Internet Archive

BHL

BHL

BHL

BHL

BHL

BHL

Sebra Prints

BHL

BHL

1stdibs.com

“Schnabelthier – Ornithorhynchus paradoxus 1 [and a half] Fuss lang mit Schnabel und Schwanz”
1 drawing : watercolour, black ink and pencil on cream paper ; 14.1 x 24.7 cm
State Library Victoria




On the marsupial pouches, mammary glands and mammary foetus of the Echidna hystrix
BHL

On the marsupial pouches, mammary glands and mammary foetus of the Echidna hystrix
BHL

On the marsupial pouches, mammary glands and mammary foetus of the Echidna hystrix
BHL


1863 Gould – The Mammals of Australia
BHL

Wikimedia Commons

L’Ornithorhynque
coloured lithograph, 25.1 x 17.1 cm
National Library of Australia

Meisterdrucke

Meisterdrucke

Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons




https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/252808
https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/albums/72157714416463388

BHL

Duck-Billed Platypus, 1886
oil on canvas, 22¼ x 30½ in.
Christie’s

State Library Victoria

Internet Archive Book Images

Internet Archive Book Images / Flickr

Cornell University Library

Internet Archive


Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

BHL

BHL

Exhibition Building, Melbourne : illustrated official handbook…
National Library of Australia

Exhibition Building, Melbourne : illustrated official handbook…
National Library of Australia

Wikimedia Commons

Internet Archive Book Images / Flickr



https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/48430
https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/albums/72157634673769417



Internet Archive




1910 “THE BIOGRAPHY OF A PLATYPUS”
By Edward S. Sorenson / Decorations by Sydney G. Smith
The Lone Hand [Sydney], Vol. 7 No. 38 (1 Jun 1910)
National Library of Australia

BHL

BHL

BHL

BHL

Media Storehouse / Mary Evans Picture Library

BHL

BHL

BHL

BHL

Media Storehouse / Mary Evans Picture Library

BHL

BHL

Internet Archive
1958 “On the Habits of the Water-Mole” by George Bennett
National Library of Australia

Internet Archive
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BHL

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11235643633/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11029470573/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11241526413/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11244462766/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11246543844/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11059927973/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11246428363/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11248098515/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11077313905/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11121555016/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11304548663/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11301993453/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11158437803/
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http://www.collectiontrade.nl/cms/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=29677&category_id=2269&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=35
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7.1 x 11cm
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PM_110584_Liebig_Chromos.jpg
Bonus book recommendations:


