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Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 1 Visualizing Science

How can images support the study of what is imperceptible to the naked eye?

How do visual explanations of concepts illuminate connections between the arts and biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and other areas of study?

From cave paintings to images, humans have used visual representation to record, study, describe, classify, order, and explain natural phenomena. This Portfolio Guide of historic and contemporary and paintings features a sampling of works from the Addison’s collection offering varied perspectives and discussion points on topics in the sciences explained visually. Educators are encouraged to use this Guide and the expanded Portfolio Image List as a starting point, a place from which to dig deeper, ask questions, and make new connections for class plans and projects.

Images and text highlighted in grey are ideas for materials and activities from outside the Addison’s collection This Portfolio Guide contains selected artworks and ideas to connect the of American art that can enhance the potential for both curricular and global connections. Addison’s collection with classroom For online use, click the images in this guide to access digital images in the Addison’s online database. themes, disciplines, and curricula.

Digital images of works from this Guide SELECTED THEMATIC APPROACHES can be downloaded from the Addison’s Seeing Motion — How did the ability to see imperceptible motion challenge ideas about “truth?” website for use in classrooms. Visits to Seeing Light — How can ’s ability to capture light waves invisible to the human eye broaden explore works in the Addison’s Museum Learning Center can be arranged as a knowledge about the world? complement to the viewing of current Documenting Nature — How do artists emphasize the importance of close observation in studying nature? exhibitions. The Chemistry of Photography — How has the chemistry of photographic technologies been used to www.addisongallery.org document, study, and spread information about the world around us? Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 2

A-C by Eadweard Muybridge (1830- 1904), from bound volume of 186 plates The Attitudes of Animals in Motion, 1881, albumen prints, partial gift of The Beinecke Foundation, Inc.

A Plate 38. Horses, Running, Hattie H., 6 1/4 x 8 13/16 in., 1987.21.44 B

B Plate C. and (Front View), 5 7/16 x 9 1/8 in., 1987.21.3

C Plate D. Camera Shed, 4 15/16 x 9 1/8 A in., 1987.21.4

D Winslow Homer (1836-1910), The Union Cavalry and Artillery Starting in Pursuit of the Rebels up the Yorktown Turnpike, printed in Harper’s Weekly, 1862, wood engraving on wove C paper, 9 1/4 x 13 7/8 in., gift of Mrs. Frederick Taft, 1987.577

E Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), Plate 541.Multiple Cerebro-Spinal Sclerosis (Choreic); Walking, from D the series of 781 plates Animal Locomotion, Volume VIII, Abnormal Movements-Men and Women, 1887, collotype on paper, 8 5/16 x 14 3/16 in., gift of the Edwin J. Beinecke Trust, 1984.6.539 F F Zoetrope with reproduction strips, c. 1880

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Connected Activities: Seeing Motion: Images as Proof Visual Processing How did the ability to see imperceptible motion impact understanding of the world? Study in relation to: • the zoetrope How did motion photography challenge ideas about “truth?” • flipbooks In 1872, Leland Stanford, the former governor of California, hired photographer Eadweard Muybridge to test • frame rate of early film his theory that when a horse gallops, all four hooves leave the ground at once. Muybridge set up twelve vs digital video (image B) along a racetrack and ran strings attached to the shutter of each camera across the track • refresh rate of television (image C). As the horse came down the track it snapped each string, setting off the shutters one by one. and computer screens Muybridge confirmed that all four of a horse’s hooves do leave the ground, but not as previously believed Study Imperceptible Change and represented (image D), and the perception of motion—and the arts—were changed forever. Create a series of Muybridge’s investigation resulted in his Attitudes of Animals in Motion series from 1881, comprised of photographs to document: 186 plates (each plate featuring one animal or human action) and his Animal Locomotion series from 1887, • plant growth comprised of 781 plates. For this later volume, Muybridge photographed models, athletes, disabled patients • animal behavior from the local hospital (image E), and animals from the Philadelphia Zoo, expanding understanding of • ecological change human and animal anatomy. Muybridge also made copies of his photographs available for use with zoetropes • weather patterns (image F), circular drums that are spun to display the small changes between images as fluid motion. Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 3

G Harold Edgerton (1903-1990), Bullet and Apple, from series Seeing the Unseen, c. 1964, , 14 x 11 in., gift of Katherine D. and Stephen C. Sherrill (PA 1971, and P 2005, 2007, 2010), 2006.42.12

H Harold Edgerton (1903-1990), Golf Drive by Densmore Shute, from series Seeing the Unseen, photograph, c. 1964, 14 x 11 in., gift of Katherine D. and Stephen C. Sherrill (PA 1971, and P 2005, 2007, 2010), 2006.42.7

I Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), Multiple Photograph, from G H series The Science Pictures, neg. c. 1958-1960, print 1982, gelatin silver print, 18 5/8 x 15 1/2 in., purchased as the gift of Vito S. Portera, 1982.160.4

J Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), Water Pattern, from series The Science Pictures, 1981, gelatin silver print, 15 5/16 x 19 3/8 in., purchased as the gift of Vito S. Portera, 1982.160.9

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Connected Activity: Seeing Motion: Experimentation and Teaching Documenting Motion How can images help us to understand phenomena imperceptible to the naked eye? In a dark room, use a camera, a , and a What are the implications of these historic images in a contemporary world of digital cameras and strobe flash to illuminate computer-generated imagery? and capture motion. From 1931 through the 1980s, researcher and MIT professor Harold “Doc” Edgerton developed and used Experiment with: stroboscopes to freeze objects in motion, illuminating scenes otherwise impossible for the human eye to • flash rate witness. While a single flash with a duration of one-third of a microsecond in a dark room can document • flash duration what happens as the kinetic energy of a bullet meets the inertia of an apple, multiple strobe flashes at 100 • angle of camera flashes per second can illuminate the Archimedes spiral in the swing fo a golf club. • weight of objects • object path and speed Photographer Berenice Abbot used similar technology in her work for MIT’s Physical Science Study Committee in 1958, a group created to reform the way students in the United States learned physics in the Using this technology, what era of the Soviet’s launch of Sputnik. Photographed with a strobe at intervals of one-thirtieth of a second, physics concepts can you Abbott illustrates the decrease of energy in a moving object, as a golf ball rolled off a table bounces in explain visually? parabolic curves. To explain wave phenomenon, Abbott combined a glass-bottomed ripple tank with an overhead flash and projected shadows of oscillating waves onto below. Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 4

K Thomas Eakins, Professor Henry A. Rowland, 1897, oil on canvas, 80 1/4 x 54 in., gift of Stephen C. Clark, Esq., 1931.5

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Connected Activity: Seeing Light: Representing Research Scientific Contribution and How can artists compose a portrait that connects the subject with his profession and achievements? Identity Plan and/or create a What can we learn about Professor Rowland’s research from the symbols included in his portrait? portrait of a scientist whose In Thomas Eakins’s 1897 portrait, Professor Henry A. Rowland holds one of the large diffraction gratings research is relevant to made with the ruling engine he invented. The grating, which has a series of fine parallel grooves evenly course material. spaced at a tolerance much less than the wavelength of light, spreads light transmitted through or Consider how to visually reflected from its surface into the order in which its component wavelengths excite the sensations of represent personal and vision. In the background, tended by Rowland’s assistant Theodore Schneider, is the engine itself, scientific history through: which can scratch 14,400 parallel, evenly spaced, three-inch lines per inch across the mirrored, gently • pose spherical surface of his gratings. Despite Rowland’s death in 1901, by the middle of the 20th century his • clothing ruling engines had made more than 1,000 gratings, and light diffracted by those gratings in international • setting laboratories and observatories had taught much of what was known about the physical world. • light • props The frame for this painting, also created by Eakins, is engraved with Rowland’s scientific notations and formulas, including those connected to Rowland’s previous research on the speed of light, the mechanical equivalent of heat, and the ohm, the unit of electrical resistance. Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 5

L Berenice Abbott, Cycloid, from series The Science Pictures, c.1960s, printed in 1982, gelatin silver print, 15 3/8 x 19 3/8 in., purchased as the gift of Vito S. Portera, 1982.160.10

M Berenice Abbott, Beams of Light Through Glass, from series The Science Pictures, c.1960s, printed in 1982, L gelatin silver print, 15 3/8 x 19 3/8 in., purchased as the gift of Vito S. Portera, 1982.160.10

N NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], (NASA became operational on October 1, 1958), Lake Powell Area, S. Utah, Erts - 1, 73-59, 1971, incorporated color coupler print, 11 x 11 in., museum purchase, 1977.47

O NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], (NASA became M operational on October 1, 1958), Halo of Hydrogen Around Earth - Apollo 16, Lunar Landing, 72-553, 1972, incorporated color coupler print, 11 x 10 7/8 in., museum purchase, 1977.59

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Connected Activities: Seeing Light: Explanation and Exploration Explaining Concepts Visually How can images be used to explain known concepts visually? Plan a photograph that illustrates: How can the ability to photograph light invisible to the human eye broaden knowledge about the world? • how light enables sight While Harold Edgerton and Berenice Abbott’s use of stroboscopic lighting illuminated scenes otherwise • light waves and color impossible for the human eye to witness (see page 3), Abbott also used light to visualize and explain in • reflection and refraction striking designs, phenomena the human eye can see, such as fraction, the bending of light when is passes • specular vs. diffuse through a prism. By placing lights at the axis and rim of a rolling cylinder, Abbott documents a cycloid, the reflection curve traced by a point on the rim of a circular wheel as the wheel rolls along a straight line. • other physics concepts As the space program developed, applications for space photography, from weather prediction to mapping, Visualization of Data became apparent. In this color composite photograph of Southern Utah, taken from NASA’s ERTS-1 in 1971, Choose a NASA photograph healthy crops, trees, and other green plants which are very bright in the infrared but invisible to the naked from the Addison’s eye display in bright red. Suburban areas with sparse vegetation appear as light pink and barren lands as collection (available via light grey. Cities and industrial areas are shown as dark gray and clear water as completely black. In a color online database) to research enhancement of an ultra-violet photograph taken from Apollo 16 in 1972, sunlight shining from the left before a museum visit. brightens the geocorona, a halo of low density hydrogen around Earth. Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 6

P anonymous, He that by the plough would thrive—Himself must either hold or drive, c. 1825-1850, oil on canvas, 34 3/4 x 84 1/8 in., purchased as the gift of Evelyn L. Roberts, 1952.1

Q John James Audubon (1785-1851), Plate 341. Great Auk. Alca Impennis, L., from folio The Birds Of America, Volume IV, 1834, hand-colored engraving from original drawing on wove paper, 25 5/8 x 38 in., gift of P anonymous donor, 1981.271.41

R Great Auk, 98.20.1. Image courtesy of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts

S Polly Thayer Starr (1904- 2006), Mole, no date, pen,ink, watercolor, pencil on wove paper, 6 1/8 x 4 1/8 in., museum Q purchase, 1955.12 S T James Prosek (b. 1975), Abstract Nature, 2012, ink on paper, four panels, 96 x 120 in., museum R purchase, 2013.78a-d Watch Prosek create this piece at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/ episodes/the-mystery-of-eels/full- episode/8251/

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Connected Activities: Documenting Nature: Seeing, Naming, and Understanding Animals R Modes of Documentation How do images as documentation and proof indicate possession of and power over nature? How do advancing technologies impact What can images teach us about the importance of seeing and studying nature? knowledge about wildlife? The moral reward in the control of nature espoused by 19th century paintings such as He That By the Plough • notetaking Would Thrive—Himself Must Either Hold or Drive is also evident in the work of John James Audubon, who • sketching set out to document and paint every North American bird known in the 19th century. The resulting portrait • photography of American wildlife has since evolved, as species “discovered” by Audubon, such as Falco Washintonii, • video /audio recording have been discredited and other species, such as the Northern Great Auk, have become extinct. The historic Classification and Taxonomy method of obtaining animal specimens in order to document them highlights the relationship between http://www.troutsite.com/ the study and ownership of nature. The rare Great Auk specimen at the Robert S. Peabody Museum of symmetrymyth.html Archaeology reflects this complicated history. Use the work of James The importance of seeing is emphasized by 20th century artists such as Polly Thayer Starr, who wrote “It is Prosek to study the an effort that requires intense, prayerful attention, but if the seeing is honest and the hand is well trained, relationship between a revelation will emerge.”1 This distinction between naming and understanding an animal can also be seen animals and naming. in the contemporary work of James Prosek, the Addison’s Fall 2013 Edward E. Elson Artist-in-Residence. 1. Polly Thayer (Starr). http://www.pollythayerstarr.org/ Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 7

U Timothy H. O’Sullivan (1840-1882), Lost Lakes near Meigs Peaks, Colorado, #19 of the 1874 Wheeler Expedition, 1874, , 8 x 10 3/4 in., museum purchase, 1976.52

V Edwin Hale Lincoln, Myrica Gale. Sweet Gale, 1904, platinum print, 9 9/16 x 7 3/8 in., gift of Mack and Paula Lee, 1988.23

W Jack Delano (1914- 1997), The U Greensboro Lumber Company, Greensboro, Georgia, neg. 1941, print 1980, dye transfer print from original Library of Congress transparency, 10 x 7 in., museum purchase, 1983.26 V

X View of Green Roof from the Museum Learning Center, Addison Gallery of American Art, photograph by Peter Vanderwarker, 2010

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Connected Activities: Documenting Nature: Seeing, Studying, and Understanding Ecosystems Ecological Change How have photographic technologies been used to document, study, and spread information about the Use photography as a world around us? tool to document change in place over time, or What tools can we use to study the impact of green technologies? study the ways in which Since its invention in the mid-19th century, the chemistry of photography has provided tools for both researchers have used these large- and small-scale environmental documentation. 19th century geographic surveys of the American technologies. West, such as the Army Corps of Engineers’ 1871-1874 Wheeler Survey, employed photographers including Green Roof Research Timothy O’Sullivan, who transported on horseback their glass-plate negatives, camera, all of the necessary Possible areas of study: processing chemicals, and a tent. Utilizing the durable platinum printing process, Edwin • soil temperatures Hale Lincoln’s early 1900s study of New England wild flowers informed university botany departments. • wind dispersal of seeds Jack Delano’s decision to use newly commercially-available color film for his Great Depression-era • rainwater collection documentation emphasizes eroded farmland in Georgia. • energy savings As understanding of environmental impact evolves, so do efforts to mitigate it. The Addison’s Green Roof, What tools might one use to visible from the Museum Learning Center, assists in the heating and cooling of spaces adjacent and below study these areas? and absorbs runoff that would have required increase of drainage systems upon the museum’s expansion. Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 8

Y anonymous, Benjamin Whitney Gleason III Family, Taken in Lawrence, Mass., before 1849, , 11 3/8 x 12 7/8 in., gift of Patricia Fuller in memory of her father, 2008.101

Z George C. Gilchrest (1812–1888), Untitled, circa 1855, , 13 AA 5/16 x 10 7/16 in., museum purchase, 1985.80 Y

AA Frederick Gutekunst (1831–1917) Z Unknown Young Man, New York City, circa 1856, ambrotype in case, 2 5/8 x 2 1/8 in., museum purchase, 1981.55

BB anonymous, Portrait of a Man (Unknown), circa 1870, tintype, 10 x 7 in., museum purchase, 1987.547 DD CC Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916), BB Distant View of the Domes, Yosemite, Calif., c. 1880, mammoth-plate albumen print, 15 3/8 x 20 in., CC museum purchase, 1983.21

DD Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936, print c. 1950, gelatin silver print, 11 in. x 14 in. museum EE purchase, 2005.8

EE Russell Lee (1903-1986), Jack Whitney and His Family, Homesteader, Pietown, New Mexico, 1940, , 10 x 13 in., FF museum purchase, 1983.27

FF Sage Sohier (b.1954), British Redcoat Re-enactor, Battle of Concord and Lexington, Lexington, MA, from series Perfectible Worlds, part of The Chemistry of Photography PRC Portfolio, 2002, printed 2008, pigmented inkjet print on Harman How does the democratization of portraiture impact an understanding of personal value and identity? gloss fiber based paper, 17 x 21 in., museum purchase, 2008.118.16 How has the reproduction of images influenced the availability of knowledge about the world? Before the invention of photography, only the upper classes could afford to have their portraits painted. Connected Activities: Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre‘s introduction of the daguerreotype in 1839 led to more affordable visual Student Presentations representation. In 1841, created the first negative from which multiple positive prints could Choose a photographic be made, called at first , Greek for “beautiful picture,” and later the talbotype or salted paper process to research before print. Utilizing the faster collodion wet-plate technology invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, the the museum visit. unique positive glass ambrotypes patented in the United States in 1854 by James Ambrose Cutting further widened the scope of those who could afford to have their images made. Unlike fragile ambrotypes and Download the Photographic , which were housed in protective cases, tintypes popularized in 1856 could easily be made in Technologies Portfolio multiples and mailed to friends and family. In the 1850s the albumen print, made from a collodion wet-plate Guide for more information glass negative, led to the first commercially viable method of producing a photographic print on paper. By the about the impact of each early 20th century, the shorter time and longer shelf-life of roll film mobilized photographers, now advancement in the unburdened by and chemicals. Digital technology, developed in the 1970s and made available to chemistry of photography. consumers in the 1990s, revolutionized the spread of images via and the internet. Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 9

The Chemistry of Photography c.1839-1870s The daguerreotype is created on a silver-coated copper plate buffed to a mirror sheen, then exposed to iodine fumes to form a light-sensitive coating of silver iodide. After exposure, the plate is treated with fumes of heated mercury to render the image visible and washed in a hyposulfite of soda solution to

Daguerreotype make the image permanent. When the finished plate is held at an angle reflecting something dark, the lighter areas are formed by the gray-white deposit of silver-mercury amalgam, while the shadows and darker areas are formed by the polished silver surface itself. Color accents were sometimes painted onto the image.

c.1841-1850s The , talbotype, or salted paper print is printed from a created as silver iodide decomposes with exposure to light and excess silver iodide is washed away with an application Salted paper print of gallo-nitrate. Potassium bromide is then used to stabilize the image. Prints are made by applying salt to paper, which is coated with a silver nitrate solution and then exposed to light in contact with the paper negative. Images were often hand tinted to elevate photographs to the status level of painted portraits.

c.1851-1880 The collodion wet-plate negative is created on a sheet of glass hand-coated with a thin film of

Ambrotype collodion, composed of guncotton dissolved in ether, and sensitized with silver nitrate. The plates are exposed in a camera immediately after being sensitized, and then developed in chemical baths shortly after exposure.

c.1854-1860s An ambrotype is an underexposed collodion negative in which the image appears as a positive when viewed against a dark background. A glass plate is coated with a thin layer of collodion and rendered light sensitive with a silver nitrate solution. After exposure, the plate is developed, fixed, and varnished, and Tintype appears as a positive as the silver reflects some light while the areas without silver appear black.

c.1856-20th Century Tintypes are non-reflective, one-of-a-kind photographs on a sheet of iron coated with a dark enamel. Like ambrotypes, tintypes rely on the principle that underexposed collodion negatives appear as positive images when viewed against a dark background.

c.1850-1890s The albumen print is made by coating a sheet of paper with the albumen found in egg whites, Albumen print which gives the paper a glossy, smooth surface. The albumenized paper is sensitized with a solution of silver nitrate, then placed in contact with a collodion wet-plate negative and exposed to the sun to produce a print.

Introduced 1870s A gelatin silver print is produced as light shining through roll film, a plastic film negative coated with light-sensitive silver salts, strikes paper coated with a gelatin emulsion also containing light-sensitive silver salts. The paper is placed in a chemical developing solution of alkali and metol or hydroquinone mixed with water, then a of a glacial acetic acid and water, and finally a fixing solution Gelatin silver print of thiosulfate to remove any undeveloped silver halide. Introduced 1935 A chromogenic print, also called a Type-C or C-print, is made on photographic paper that has three silver emulsion layers sensitized to the primary of light. During developing, dye couplers bond with the exposed silver halides and the silver is bleached away, leaving a full-color positive image.

Introduced 1946 A dye transfer print is created by printing three color separation negatives onto a single Chromogenic print sheet of light-sensitive paper.

Introduced 1991 Digital cameras record images through an , rather than on plates or negatives. Photosensitive diodes on the surface of the image sensor convert light passing through the into electrical impulses which are measured and converted into a digital number. The final image is composed of a series of square picture elements, or , each with its own numerical value. Images are “developed” either through a digital printer (such as an inkjet) or using a digital enlarger that exposes light-sensitive paper. Digital print Addison Gallery of American Art MUSEUM LEARNING CENTER Portfolio Guide: Visualizing Science 10

Curriculum Connections and Resources SUGGESTED CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS History/Social Studies Art • the physics of motion • westward expansion • representation • the physics of light • Manifest Destiny • portrait and profession • mapping Arranging a Visit to the • The American West • narrative • environmental geography Museum Learning Center • land conservation • landscape • ecology At least two weeks in advance • environment and ecology • weather and atmosphere • bioethics or preferably more, contact: • land use and agriculture • social documentation • environmental ethics • social action through images • plant growth Jamie Gibbons Science • animal behavior (978) 749-4037 English • interdependence of art and • agriculture [email protected] • proof and persuasion science • chemistry of photography • the history of film • observation and gathering to schedule your visit and • classification and taxonomy • the impact of expanding data discuss possible themes, • green technologies applicable portfolios of works, knowledge about the world • visualization of data and related activities. CONNECTIONS TO ADDITIONAL THEMATIC PORTFOLIOS Representing the Land Photographic Technologies Documentation vs. Art Representation and Reality The Media and Technology The Power of Photography

TEACHER AND STUDENT RESOURCES Abbott, Berenice. Documenting Science. Gottingen, Germany: Steidl, 2012. Berenice Abbott explains the objectives and processes of her Science Pictures.

James Prosek. http://www.troutsite.com/ Artist website with images, resources, and links to videos.

Kingston Museum and Heritage Service. Eadweard Muybridge: Teacher and Student Notes. https:// research.kingston.ac.uk/muybridgeinkingston/images/Muybridge%20in%20Kingston%20Teachers%20 Pack.pdf Explores a selection of works, providing background information, discussion ideas, and suggested activities.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Edgerton Digital Collections Project. http://video.mit.edu/

Addison Gallery of American Art watch/the-life-and-works-of-doc-edgerton-2508/ Browse 150 films and video, 8,000 pages from Doc Phillips Academy, Andover, MA Edgerton’s hand-written laboratory notebooks, and hundreds of high-speed photographic images. Education Department PBS. “John James Audubon: Drawn from Nature.” American Masters. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ Jamie Gibbons Head of Education americanmasters/episodes/john-james-audubon/drawn-from-nature/106/ Biography, career timeline, and illustration gallery to further contextualize documentary series. Christine Jee Manager of School and Robin, Harry. The Scientific Image: From Cave to Computer. New York: Harry N. Abrams Incorporated, Community Collaborations 1992. An exploration of scientific illustrations from the 9th through the 20th centuries. www.addisongallery.org