Loving Insects: John Abbot’s Drawings and Natural History Collecting in the Atlantic World, 1760s-1840s

Tobin’s book on the remarkable artist, naturalist, and insect lover, John Abbot, is a gift for scholars and general readers interested in collecting and eighteenth-century natural history. -- Deirdre Coleman * author of Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher * Tobin literally dusts the cobwebs off Abbot to reveal a world of scientific curiosity and inquiry that we are more accustomed to stumbling upon in one of Attenborough’s documentary films than in eighteenth-century books, manuscripts, and specimens sequestered in museum and library cabinets. As such, Loving Insects serves as a vivid reminder that science storytelling is not a contemporary phenomenon, nor is scientific exploration. Abbot represents all that has contributed to the shaping of modern science in an increasingly globalized world. -- Romita Ray * author of Under the Banyan Tree: Relocating the Picturesque in British India * Compellingly written and stunningly illustrated, Beth Fowkes Tobin’s study of the unforgivingly forgotten Georgia-based natural history collector and artist, John Abbot, is a tour-de-force—exacting, vibrant, and deeply personal. We have never needed natural history more than now as we face a terrifying future. This book helps you understand why. -- Jordan Goodman * author of Planting the World: Joseph Banks and His Collectors: An Adventurous History of Botany *