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"C" is for Catesby, Mark [1682-1749]

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"C" is for Catesby, Mark [1682-1749]. Naturalist. Artist. With the financial backing of influential Englishmen, Catesby came to Charleston in 1722 to gather specimens and notes for an illustrated work on the natural history of the Carolina region. In 1725 he left Charleston and journeyed to Florida and the Bahamas. Back in England, he began preparing the plates and text for publication—teaching himself engraving. His richly illustrated work, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas, appeared in two volumes—the first completed in 1731 and the second in 1743.The European naturalist, Linnaeus, used Catesby’s work for the inclusion of North American flora and fauna in his system of classification of plants and animals. Mark Catesby’s publication was the first extensively illustrated work on the natural history of any region in North America.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.