MONOTREMES (PLATYPUS & ECHIDNA) HISTORICAL SCIART IMAGE BANK

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

**c. 1791 attributed to the Port Jackson Painter** **[1ST KNOWN EUROPEAN DEPICTION OF A ECHIDNA]**
**Thomas Watling Drawings Collection, 1788-c. 1797 (No. 94)**
**Natural History Museum London**

**1792 (Feb.?) William Bligh**
“An animal shot at Adventure Bay”
Mitchell Library, State Library NSW

1792 (Feb.?) George Tobin
“Animal of Adventure Bay”
Mitchell Library, State Library NSW

c. 1792-7 Thomas Watling
Thomas Watling Drawings Collection, 1788-c. 1797 (No. 93)
**Natural History Museum London**

c.1790s Lambert Album (possibly J. Whatman 1794) – copy of Watling 93
Pl.10, watercolor on paper
**State Library NSW**

1792 (July) George Shaw / Frederick Nodder – *The Naturalist’s Miscellany* [1st PUBLISHED SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION AND FIRST PUBLISHED IMAGE OF AN ECHIDNA]
Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)

1ST KNOWN EUROPEAN DEPICTION OF A PLATYPUS by Governor John Hunter, 1797 (1802 published version)
State Library Victoria

**1798 Betruch – *Bilderbuch für Kinder* [1ST PUBLISHED EUROPEAN PLATYPUS IMAGE]**
**Heidelberg University Library**

1799 Shaw / Nodder – *The Naturalist’s Miscellany*
**[1ST PUBLISHED SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION OF A PLATYPUS]**
**BHL**

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

**Original watercolor of the Platypus illustration used for the title page of *General Zoology*, attributed to author George Shaw, 1799. Framed with published page. Private collection. [Via MutualArt]**

Thomas Davies (1737-1812)
“Ducks Bill Beaver”
Page from a sketchbook of mammals, fish, and ethnographical objects, c. 1798-1800?
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery

Thomas Davies’ watercolor illustration accompanying his paper presented to the Linnean Society of London, c. 1800
Linnean Society of London

1800 Thomas Bewick – *A general history of quadrupeds*
BHL

1800 Thomas Pennant – *Allgemeine Uebersicht der vierfüssigen Thiere*
BHL

**1803** Ferdinand Bauer (1760-1826) – *Forty-nine original watercolour drawings of animals which were collected when accompanying the voyage under Capt. M. Flinders to Australia*. / Plate 12 | Ornithorhynchus anatinus | 335 x 510 mm
Natural History Museum London

1803 Joan Calkoen – *Beschryving van den Ornithorhynchus paradoxus of zonderbaar zoogend vogel-bek-dier van Nieuw-Hollandia*, Plate II
National Library of Australia

1803 Joan Calkoen – *Beschryving van den Ornithorhynchus paradoxus of zonderbaar zoogend vogel-bek-dier van Nieuw-Hollandia*, Plate III
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)

1805 Bertuch – *Bilderbuch für Kinder*
**Meisterdrucke**

1807 I.W. Lewin
drawing – 21.2 x 29.4 cm – watercolour and pencil
State Library NSW

1810 I.W. Lewin
drawing – 43.8 x 54.3 cm. – watercolour and gouache
State Library NSW

1810-1 George Perry – *Arcana, or, The Museum of Natural History*
National Library of Australia

1811 M. F. Péron – *Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes*
BHL

1813 Betruch – *Bilderbuch für Kinder* (copy)
Heidelberg University Library

1812 Bullock / Howitt *A companion to Mr. Bullock’s London Museum and Pantherion*
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

1815 Leach / Nodder – *The zoological miscellany*
BHL

1816 Bertuch – *Bilderbuch für Kinder*
Heidelberg University Library

1823 J. van der Hoeven
*Mémoire sur le genre Ornithorhinque (Ornithorhynchus Bl.)*
National Library of Australia

1827 Antoine-Charles Vauthier (1790-1879)
watercolor, pen & ink on paper; 11 x 15.5 cm
National Library of Australia

1827 Georges Cuvier – *The Animal Kingdom*
BHL

1833 Cuvier – *Regne Animal*
Sebra Prints

1834 George Bennett
*Notes on the Natural History and Habits*
*of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus*
National Library of Australia

1834 Bennett
*Notes on the Natural History and Habits*
*of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus*
National Library of Australia

1834 Richard Owen
*On the Young of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus*
Plate XXXII
National Library of Australia

1834 Owen
*On the Young of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus*
Plate XXXIII
National Library of Australia

1835 J-S-C Dumont D’Urville – *Voyage pittoresque autour du monde*
**Bavarian State Library**

1833-40 (1835) *Dictionnaire pittoresque d’histoire naturelle et des phénomènes de la nature*
BHL

1833-40 (1838) *Dictionnaire pittoresque d’histoire naturelle et des phénomènes de la nature*
BHL

1838 R. P. Lesson – *Compléments de Buffon*
BHL

1838 Lesson – *Compléments de Buffon*
BHL

1841 Jardine/Waterhouse – *The Naturalist’s Library*
Internet Archive

1840 Jardine/Waterhouse – *The Naturalist’s Library*
Internet Archive

1842 Jardine – *The Naturalist’s Library*
BHL

1842 Pierre Bernard – *Le jardin des plantes*
Internet Archive

1844 – *The Pictorial Museum of Animated Nature*
BHL

1844 *Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur, mit Beschreibungen*
BHL

c. 1848-1860 *Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London*
BHL

1849 Orbigny – *Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle*
BHL

1850 *Popular History of Mammalia; Comprising a Familiar Account of Their Classification and habits*
Sebra Prints

1851-60 *The natural history of the sacred Scriptures, and guide to general zoology*
BHL

1854 Paul Gervais – *Les Trois Règnes de la Nature*
1stdibs.com

1854 (6 April) Eugene von Guerard (1811-1901)
“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

**1859-62 Richardson – *The Museum of Natural History* BHL**

1865 Owen
*On the marsupial pouches, mammary glands and mammary foetus of the Echidna hystrix*
BHL

1863 Gould – *The Mammals of Australia*
BHL

1860s Eduoard Travies
*L’Ornithorhynque*
coloured lithograph, 25.1 x 17.1 cm
National Library of Australia

1863-79 *Atlante Zoologico Popolare*, *opera compilata sui più recenti lavori di zoologia Italiani e stranieri*
Meisterdrucke

1871 Krefft –*Mammals of Australia* (Scott Sisters)
Wikimedia Commons

Ostéographie des monotrèmes vivants et fossiles comprenant la description et l’iconographie du squelette et du système dentaire de ces animaux ainsi que des documents relatifs à leur histoire naturelle (1877-8)
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/252808
https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/albums/72157714416463388

1880 *Johnson’s Household Book of Nature*
BHL

**James E. Bourhill (British, fl.1880-1887)**
**Duck-Billed Platypus, 1886**
**oil on canvas, 22¼ x 30½ in**.
**Christie’s**

1889 *Natural history of the animal kingdom for the use of young people*
Internet Archive Book Images

1889 *Natural history of the animal kingdom for the use of young people*
Internet Archive Book Images / Flickr

1889 *The cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka and New Guinea*
Cornell University Library

1890 *Meyers Konversations-Lexikon* (4th ed.)
Internet Archive

**1897 *Meyers Konversations-Lexikon* (5th ed.)**

1894 Franz Matthes – *Mineralogie*
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

1894 Lydekker – *A hand-book to the marsupialia and monotremata*
BHL

1894 James E. Sherrard
*Exhibition Building, Melbourne : illustrated official handbook…*
National Library of Australia

1900 *Naturgeschichte der Säugetiere*
**e-rara**

c. 1900-1907 *Yuzhakov Big Encyclopedia*
Wikimedia Commons

1901 *Animals in action; studies and stories of beasts, birds and reptiles; their habits, their homes and their peculiarities*
Internet Archive Book Images / Flickr

*Der Schädelbau der Monotremen* (1901)
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/48430
https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/albums/72157634673769417

*Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien* (1906)
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