John Abbot (entomologist)

John Abbot was an American entomologist and ornithologist born 31 May or 1 June 1751 in London and died December 1840 or January 1841 in Bulloch County in Georgia.

Little is known of his life. He was the eldest son of James Abbot and Ann Clousinger. His father encouraged his interest in entomology and art and he studied drawing and engraving with the engraver Jacob Bonneau (1741–1786). Showing great talent as an illustrator, he was encouraged by Dru Drury and a group of naturalists from the Royal Society to go to Virginia to study and collect natural history specimens. He remained in Virginia from 1773 to 1775 then settled in Georgia in what is now known as Screven County.

He produced thousands of insect illustrations, as well as several sets of bird illustrations. The majority are preserved in the Natural History Museum, London, the British Museum and Houghton Library at Harvard University. Other repositories of his drawings include Johns Hopkins University, University of South Carolina, Emory University, and the Alexander Turnbull Library. Some have been dispersed following various auctions that included his drawings. The bird and insect specimens that he collected were sent to Britain and Europe, but a certain number were lost at sea, which discouraged him. He nonetheless continued to collect and paint specimens until at least 1835.

The only publication to bear his name was The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia, whose primary author was James Edward Smith. It included 104 plates that were reproduced from original drawings by John Abbot, which are now preserved at Johns Hopkins University. Abbot also provided most of the observations published in the book. First appearing in 1797, new copies of the book were issued for thirty years.

From 1829 to 1837, renowned French entomologist Jean Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval (1799–1879) and wealthy American naturalist John Eatton Le Conte (1784–1860) published instalments of Histoire Générale et Iconographie des Lépidoptères et des Chenilles de l’Amérique Septentrionale. This publication included 78 hand-colored engraved plates, most created from original drawings by John Abbot. The majority of these original drawings are now deposited at the University of South Carolina.

Works

• with James Edward Smith (1759–1828), The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia Collected from Observations by John Abbot (2 volumes, 104 plates).(1797).
• Original drawings for Jean Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval's (1799–1879) and John Eatton Le Conte's (1825–1883) Histoire Générale et Iconographie des Lépidoptères et des Chenilles de l’Amérique septentrionale (1833).
• Original drawings for Charles Athanasie Walckenaer's Histoire naturelle des insectes aptères(1837–1847).

Plates from Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia

References

1. ^ "Author Query". International Plant Names Index. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do. 

• Arnold Mallis (1971). American Entomologists. Rutgers University Press (New Brunswick) : xvii + 549 p.
• Calhoun, J. (2004). Histoire Générale et Iconographie des Lépidoptères et des Chenilles de l’Amérique septentrionale by Boisduval and Le Conte (1829-[1837]): original drawings used for the engraved plates and the true identities of four figured taxa. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 58:143-168.
• Calhoun, J. (2006). A glimpse into a 'flora et entomologia': The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia by J. E. Smith & J. Abbot (1797). Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 60:1-37.
• Calhoun, J. (2006). John Abbot's "lost" drawings for John E. Le Conte in the American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 60:211-217.
• Calhoun, J. (2007). John Abbot's butterfly drawings for William Swainson, including general comments about Abbot's artistic methods and written observations. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 61:1-20.
• Calhoun, J. (2007). The butterfly drawings by John Abbot in the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 61:125-137.
• Calhoun, J. (2007). Butterfly drawings by John Abbot in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, that are wrongly attributed to an inferior copyist. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 61:228-232.
• Calhoun, J. & D. Johnston (2010). John Abbot, the English naturalist-artist in Virginia. Banisteria. 35:3-10.
• Hollingsworth, D. (1989) (ed.), The History of Screven County, Georgia (Dallas, Tex.: Curtis Media Corporation).
• Keir B. Sterling, Richard P. Harmond, George A. Cevasco & Lorne F. Hammond (dir.) (1997). Biographical dictionary of American and Canadian naturalists and environmentalists. Greenwood Press (Westport) : xix + 937 p.
• Gilbert, P. (1998). John Abbot: birds, butterflies and other wonders. Merell Holberton (London): 128 p.
• Rogers-Price, V. (1983). John Abbot in Georgia: the vision of a naturalist artist (1751-ca.1840). Madison-Morgan Cultural Center (Madison, Georgia): 149 p.
• Rogers-Price, V. (1997). John Abbot's birds of Georgia: selected drawings from the Houghton Library Harvard University. Beehive Press (Savannah): xlii + 26 pl.

External links

• Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889
• Browse The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia in Botanicus.org
• Author Query Results and Plant Name Query Results for John Abbot (entomologist) at the International Plant Names Index. Retrieved on March 26, 2008.
• Works by or about John Abbot (entomologist) in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Finding Aid to the John Abbot Collection, undated
• Guide to John Abbot's works at Houghton Library, Harvard University