The Remarkable Nature of Edward Lear at Harvard Museum of Natural History

Robert McCracken Peck, Curator of Art and Artifacts, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

Edward Lear (1812–1888), best known for The Owl and the Pussycat and other nonsense poetry, was also an accomplished painter of birds, mammals, reptiles, and landscapes, and an adventurous world traveler. His paintings of parrots, macaws, toucans, owls, and other birds are among the finest ever published. Robert McCracken Peck will discuss the remarkable life and natural history paintings of this beloved children’s writer, who mysteriously abandoned his scientific work soon after achieving preeminence in the field.