{"id":113006,"date":"2012-06-27T17:16:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T21:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"\/gazette\/?p=113006"},"modified":"2019-06-14T15:30:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T19:30:22","slug":"edward-lears-natural-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2012\/06\/edward-lears-natural-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Lear\u2019s natural history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"\"

Harvard's Houghton Library has the world\u2019s largest collection of Lear paintings. Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.<\/p>

Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tArts & Culture\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tEdward Lear\u2019s natural history\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tCorydon Ireland\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tExhibit shows famed nonsense writer\u2019s early devotion to painting, sketching\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\t\t

\u201cThe Natural History of Edward Lear,\u201d which is on view at the Houghton Library through Aug. 18, can be summed up rather whimsically:<\/p>\n

There was once a man named Lear
\nWho loved the absurd, that\u2019s clear.
\nBut his first love \u2014 it\u2019s true \u2014 was the London Zoo,
\nFor its parrots, bears, and badgers too.
\nThat patient, penciling, painting, young Lear.<\/p>\n

Lear (1812-1888) is best remembered as a master of nonsense in verse, prose, and song. He gave the limerick new life, and along the way created the \u201cruncible spoon,\u201d \u201cthe Jumblies,\u201d and the \u201cbong tree.\u201d But Lear was also an accomplished landscape painter and travel writer. Few people know he composed clever melodies, by ear, to play and sing for friends. (Look at the exhibit\u2019s ninth case for a sample of the music \u2014 a Harvard thesis in the making, perhaps.)<\/p>\n

Even fewer people know that the young Lear was a meticulous painter and illustrator of natural history. It\u2019s a little-explored gap in his life, one that the Houghton show hopes to repair. \u201cThis is a relatively unexplored aspect of his career,\u201d said Hope Mayo<\/a>, the Houghton\u2019s Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts.<\/p>\n

The first-floor exhibit is pegged to the 200th anniversary of Lear\u2019s birth, and was guest-curated by naturalist, writer, and historian Robert McCracken Peck<\/a>, a senior fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Thanks to two early benefactors, Philip Hofer \u201921 and William B. Osgood Field<\/a>, the Houghton has the world\u2019s largest collection of Lear paintings. Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.<\/p>\n

An impoverished child from a large and scattered family, Lear was 15 when he started selling sketches to shopkeepers and coach passengers \u201cfor bread and cheese,\u201d he wrote. He combined that enterprise with what he called \u201cmorbid disease drawings\u201d for London doctors.<\/p>\n

By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots, what he said was the first of its kind on a single species. \u201cIllustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots\u201d (1832) includes 42 lush and large, hand-colored lithographs of the birds he most loved. (Lear didn\u2019t mind dying and going to heaven, he once said, but would be more comfortable if parrots were there too.)<\/p>\n

The monograph did not make the young Lear rich, but it made him one of the most accomplished natural history artists of his era. He influenced two icons of nature illustration, John Gould and John James Audubon<\/a>, and worked with both.<\/p>\n

The Houghton exhibit nicely frames Lear\u2019s golden age of natural history painting (1827-1837). The first of the nine glass cases pays homage to the well-known, portly master of word wit, who often depicted himself as a bird. Look for manuscript examples of his nonsense verse, limericks, illustrated alphabets, and whimsical wildlife. There is also an album of sketches and painting he shared with his sister Ann, 21 years his senior. She not only educated Lear but introduced him to the joy of drawing.<\/p>\n

The exhibit\u2019s eighth case contains a glimpse of the mature Lear: the man who moved to Rome in 1837 to pursue landscape painting, and the restless soul who wrote three illustrated books of his travels. Look for his \u201cJournals of a Landscape Painter in Albania\u201d (1851), including a tint lithograph, called \u201cAvlona,\u201d that depicts pelicans arrayed on a sere plain. (Lear, severely nearsighted by then, first thought they were rows of white stones.)<\/p>\n

The adventurous Lear was one of the first foreign visitors to remote regions of Albania, and he made art excursions to exotic locales around the Mediterranean, North Africa, and India. (He lived most of his adulthood abroad, and died at his villa in San Remo, Italy, in 1888.) Much of the Houghton collection is landscape studies, which Lear meticulously recorded and filed for future commissions. Most of his landscapes are watercolors, the medium he used in his nature art. But he aspired to oil painting as well. \u201cThat\u2019s what got you ahead,\u201d said Mayo of Victorian-era landscape artists, \u201cthese large, grandiose oil paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n

His transition from nature art to landscapes was, in part, inspired by sketching trips to Ireland and the Lake District in the mid-1830s. But the shift was also practical: Lear\u2019s eyesight was failing fast. In 1837 he told Gould that he had to withdraw from scientific illustration, lamenting that he would soon only be able to draw ostriches.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

\"\"
By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots; examples of his work are included in the exhibit.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

Lear at ages 15 to 25 had poor eyesight, asthma, chronic bronchitis, epilepsy, and bouts of depression. But he also had the ambition you might expect of a boy scrambling for an income. (Lear, the 20th of 21 children, was born into a prosperous family. But his father, a stockbroker, suffered a financial reversal. By age 4, Edward was living with Ann, who home-schooled him.)<\/p>\n

The younger Lear also already had a seed of nonsense and whimsy. The exhibit\u2019s second case, for instance, shows Lear\u2019s fruitful and fundamental connection to the London Zoo. But one of the sketches is a parrot study, which includes one bird studying a rotund zoo visitor.<\/p>\n

The same case shows Lear as serious and professional. Every detailed hair is in place in his ink, graphite, and watercolor study of a small animal called the rock hyrax.<\/p>\n

The pinnacle of the young artist\u2019s serious pursuit of scientific illustration was his parrot work, which the exhibit lovingly outlines. Plate 7 in his monograph \u201cRed and Yellow Macaw\u201d is among his most famous images. Nearby is Lear\u2019s study for the same final image, complete with brush-stroked swatches of watercolor as he searched for the right tints.<\/p>\n

The exhibit\u2019s fifth case, on his dealings with Gould, shows Lear\u2019s fondness for owls, the animals that later appeared so frequently in his nonsense sketches. His \u201cGreat Horned or Eagle Owl,\u201d created for Gould\u2019s \u201cThe Birds of Europe\u201d (1832-1837), shows the young Lear vividly as he was: a master of the real.<\/p>\n

No display of early Lear would be complete without a look at the influences of Lord Edward Stanley, the 13th earl of Derby, who met Lear in 1831. Soon after, Derby commissioned Lear to record the animals in the menagerie at his family estate near Liverpool, Knowsley Hall<\/a>. (The 170-acre collection, maintained by a staff of 30, eventually included 619 species of birds alone.)<\/p>\n

Lear spent countless hours over four years drawing mammals, birds, and reptiles, making more than 100 life portraits. Lear also enjoyed his first sketching tours \u2014 and his first years as a painter abroad \u2014 thanks to Derby\u2019s fortune.<\/p>\n

It was at Knowsley too that Lear wrote and illustrated some of his first nonsense poems. \u201cThe earl noticed that all the children and the grandchildren of the house were disappearing after dinner,\u201d said Mayo. \u201cThey were going down to the housekeeper\u2019s room to hear Mr. Lear recite limericks and draw pictures for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The Natural History of Edward Lear” continues through Aug. 18 at Houghton Library.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.","mediaId":113119,"mediaSize":"full","mediaType":"image","mediaUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/061412_lear_010_605main.jpg","poster":"","title":"Edward Lear\u2019s natural history","subheading":"Exhibit shows famed nonsense writer\u2019s early devotion to painting, sketching","centeredImage":true,"className":"is-style-full-width-text-below","mediaHeight":403,"mediaWidth":605,"backgroundFixed":false,"backgroundTone":"light","coloredBackground":false,"displayOverlay":true,"fadeInText":false,"isAmbient":false,"mediaLength":"","mediaPosition":"","posterText":"","titleAbove":false,"useUncroppedImage":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/061412_lear_010_605main.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard's Houghton Library has the world\u2019s largest collection of Lear paintings. Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/061412_lear_010_605main.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard's Houghton Library has the world\u2019s largest collection of Lear paintings. Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/061412_lear_010_605main.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard's Houghton Library has the world\u2019s largest collection of Lear paintings. Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tArts & Culture\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tEdward Lear\u2019s natural history\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tCorydon Ireland\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2012-06-27\">\n\t\t\tJune 27, 2012\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t7 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tExhibit shows famed nonsense writer\u2019s early devotion to painting, sketching\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>\u201cThe Natural History of Edward Lear,\u201d which is on view at the Houghton Library through Aug. 18, can be summed up rather whimsically:<\/p>\n<p>There was once a man named Lear<br \/>\nWho loved the absurd, that\u2019s clear.<br \/>\nBut his first love \u2014 it\u2019s true \u2014 was the London Zoo,<br \/>\nFor its parrots, bears, and badgers too.<br \/>\nThat patient, penciling, painting, young Lear.<\/p>\n<p>Lear (1812-1888) is best remembered as a master of nonsense in verse, prose, and song. He gave the limerick new life, and along the way created the \u201cruncible spoon,\u201d \u201cthe Jumblies,\u201d and the \u201cbong tree.\u201d But Lear was also an accomplished landscape painter and travel writer. Few people know he composed clever melodies, by ear, to play and sing for friends. (Look at the exhibit\u2019s ninth case for a sample of the music \u2014 a Harvard thesis in the making, perhaps.)<\/p>\n<p>Even fewer people know that the young Lear was a meticulous painter and illustrator of natural history. It\u2019s a little-explored gap in his life, one that the Houghton show hopes to repair. \u201cThis is a relatively unexplored aspect of his career,\u201d said <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2012\/03\/harvard%E2%80%99s-first-impressions\/\">Hope Mayo<\/a>, the Houghton\u2019s Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts.<\/p>\n<p>The first-floor exhibit is pegged to the 200th anniversary of Lear\u2019s birth, and was guest-curated by naturalist, writer, and historian <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ansp.org\/about\/staff\/peck\/\">Robert McCracken Peck<\/a>, a senior fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Thanks to two early benefactors, Philip Hofer \u201921 and <a href=\"http:\/\/research.frick.org\/directoryweb\/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=7306\">William B. Osgood Field<\/a>, the Houghton has the world\u2019s largest collection of Lear paintings. Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.<\/p>\n<p>An impoverished child from a large and scattered family, Lear was 15 when he started selling sketches to shopkeepers and coach passengers \u201cfor bread and cheese,\u201d he wrote. He combined that enterprise with what he called \u201cmorbid disease drawings\u201d for London doctors.<\/p>\n<p>By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots, what he said was the first of its kind on a single species. \u201cIllustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots\u201d (1832) includes 42 lush and large, hand-colored lithographs of the birds he most loved. (Lear didn\u2019t mind dying and going to heaven, he once said, but would be more comfortable if parrots were there too.)<\/p>\n<p>The monograph did not make the young Lear rich, but it made him one of the most accomplished natural history artists of his era. He influenced two icons of nature illustration, John Gould and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.audubon.org\/john-james-audubon\">John James Audubon<\/a>, and worked with both.<\/p>\n<p>The Houghton exhibit nicely frames Lear\u2019s golden age of natural history painting (1827-1837). The first of the nine glass cases pays homage to the well-known, portly master of word wit, who often depicted himself as a bird. Look for manuscript examples of his nonsense verse, limericks, illustrated alphabets, and whimsical wildlife. There is also an album of sketches and painting he shared with his sister Ann, 21 years his senior. She not only educated Lear but introduced him to the joy of drawing.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit\u2019s eighth case contains a glimpse of the mature Lear: the man who moved to Rome in 1837 to pursue landscape painting, and the restless soul who wrote three illustrated books of his travels. Look for his \u201cJournals of a Landscape Painter in Albania\u201d (1851), including a tint lithograph, called \u201cAvlona,\u201d that depicts pelicans arrayed on a sere plain. (Lear, severely nearsighted by then, first thought they were rows of white stones.)<\/p>\n<p>The adventurous Lear was one of the first foreign visitors to remote regions of Albania, and he made art excursions to exotic locales around the Mediterranean, North Africa, and India. (He lived most of his adulthood abroad, and died at his villa in San Remo, Italy, in 1888.) Much of the Houghton collection is landscape studies, which Lear meticulously recorded and filed for future commissions. Most of his landscapes are watercolors, the medium he used in his nature art. But he aspired to oil painting as well. \u201cThat\u2019s what got you ahead,\u201d said Mayo of Victorian-era landscape artists, \u201cthese large, grandiose oil paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His transition from nature art to landscapes was, in part, inspired by sketching trips to Ireland and the Lake District in the mid-1830s. But the shift was also practical: Lear\u2019s eyesight was failing fast. In 1837 he told Gould that he had to withdraw from scientific illustration, lamenting that he would soon only be able to draw ostriches.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>\u201cThe Natural History of Edward Lear,\u201d which is on view at the Houghton Library through Aug. 18, can be summed up rather whimsically:<\/p>\n<p>There was once a man named Lear<br \/>\nWho loved the absurd, that\u2019s clear.<br \/>\nBut his first love \u2014 it\u2019s true \u2014 was the London Zoo,<br \/>\nFor its parrots, bears, and badgers too.<br \/>\nThat patient, penciling, painting, young Lear.<\/p>\n<p>Lear (1812-1888) is best remembered as a master of nonsense in verse, prose, and song. He gave the limerick new life, and along the way created the \u201cruncible spoon,\u201d \u201cthe Jumblies,\u201d and the \u201cbong tree.\u201d But Lear was also an accomplished landscape painter and travel writer. Few people know he composed clever melodies, by ear, to play and sing for friends. (Look at the exhibit\u2019s ninth case for a sample of the music \u2014 a Harvard thesis in the making, perhaps.)<\/p>\n<p>Even fewer people know that the young Lear was a meticulous painter and illustrator of natural history. It\u2019s a little-explored gap in his life, one that the Houghton show hopes to repair. \u201cThis is a relatively unexplored aspect of his career,\u201d said <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2012\/03\/harvard%E2%80%99s-first-impressions\/\">Hope Mayo<\/a>, the Houghton\u2019s Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts.<\/p>\n<p>The first-floor exhibit is pegged to the 200th anniversary of Lear\u2019s birth, and was guest-curated by naturalist, writer, and historian <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ansp.org\/about\/staff\/peck\/\">Robert McCracken Peck<\/a>, a senior fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Thanks to two early benefactors, Philip Hofer \u201921 and <a href=\"http:\/\/research.frick.org\/directoryweb\/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=7306\">William B. Osgood Field<\/a>, the Houghton has the world\u2019s largest collection of Lear paintings. Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.<\/p>\n<p>An impoverished child from a large and scattered family, Lear was 15 when he started selling sketches to shopkeepers and coach passengers \u201cfor bread and cheese,\u201d he wrote. He combined that enterprise with what he called \u201cmorbid disease drawings\u201d for London doctors.<\/p>\n<p>By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots, what he said was the first of its kind on a single species. \u201cIllustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots\u201d (1832) includes 42 lush and large, hand-colored lithographs of the birds he most loved. (Lear didn\u2019t mind dying and going to heaven, he once said, but would be more comfortable if parrots were there too.)<\/p>\n<p>The monograph did not make the young Lear rich, but it made him one of the most accomplished natural history artists of his era. He influenced two icons of nature illustration, John Gould and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.audubon.org\/john-james-audubon\">John James Audubon<\/a>, and worked with both.<\/p>\n<p>The Houghton exhibit nicely frames Lear\u2019s golden age of natural history painting (1827-1837). The first of the nine glass cases pays homage to the well-known, portly master of word wit, who often depicted himself as a bird. Look for manuscript examples of his nonsense verse, limericks, illustrated alphabets, and whimsical wildlife. There is also an album of sketches and painting he shared with his sister Ann, 21 years his senior. She not only educated Lear but introduced him to the joy of drawing.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit\u2019s eighth case contains a glimpse of the mature Lear: the man who moved to Rome in 1837 to pursue landscape painting, and the restless soul who wrote three illustrated books of his travels. Look for his \u201cJournals of a Landscape Painter in Albania\u201d (1851), including a tint lithograph, called \u201cAvlona,\u201d that depicts pelicans arrayed on a sere plain. (Lear, severely nearsighted by then, first thought they were rows of white stones.)<\/p>\n<p>The adventurous Lear was one of the first foreign visitors to remote regions of Albania, and he made art excursions to exotic locales around the Mediterranean, North Africa, and India. (He lived most of his adulthood abroad, and died at his villa in San Remo, Italy, in 1888.) Much of the Houghton collection is landscape studies, which Lear meticulously recorded and filed for future commissions. Most of his landscapes are watercolors, the medium he used in his nature art. But he aspired to oil painting as well. \u201cThat\u2019s what got you ahead,\u201d said Mayo of Victorian-era landscape artists, \u201cthese large, grandiose oil paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His transition from nature art to landscapes was, in part, inspired by sketching trips to Ireland and the Lake District in the mid-1830s. But the shift was also practical: Lear\u2019s eyesight was failing fast. In 1837 he told Gould that he had to withdraw from scientific illustration, lamenting that he would soon only be able to draw ostriches.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>\u201cThe Natural History of Edward Lear,\u201d which is on view at the Houghton Library through Aug. 18, can be summed up rather whimsically:<\/p>\n<p>There was once a man named Lear<br \/>\nWho loved the absurd, that\u2019s clear.<br \/>\nBut his first love \u2014 it\u2019s true \u2014 was the London Zoo,<br \/>\nFor its parrots, bears, and badgers too.<br \/>\nThat patient, penciling, painting, young Lear.<\/p>\n<p>Lear (1812-1888) is best remembered as a master of nonsense in verse, prose, and song. He gave the limerick new life, and along the way created the \u201cruncible spoon,\u201d \u201cthe Jumblies,\u201d and the \u201cbong tree.\u201d But Lear was also an accomplished landscape painter and travel writer. Few people know he composed clever melodies, by ear, to play and sing for friends. (Look at the exhibit\u2019s ninth case for a sample of the music \u2014 a Harvard thesis in the making, perhaps.)<\/p>\n<p>Even fewer people know that the young Lear was a meticulous painter and illustrator of natural history. It\u2019s a little-explored gap in his life, one that the Houghton show hopes to repair. \u201cThis is a relatively unexplored aspect of his career,\u201d said <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2012\/03\/harvard%E2%80%99s-first-impressions\/\">Hope Mayo<\/a>, the Houghton\u2019s Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts.<\/p>\n<p>The first-floor exhibit is pegged to the 200th anniversary of Lear\u2019s birth, and was guest-curated by naturalist, writer, and historian <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ansp.org\/about\/staff\/peck\/\">Robert McCracken Peck<\/a>, a senior fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Thanks to two early benefactors, Philip Hofer \u201921 and <a href=\"http:\/\/research.frick.org\/directoryweb\/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=7306\">William B. Osgood Field<\/a>, the Houghton has the world\u2019s largest collection of Lear paintings. Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.<\/p>\n<p>An impoverished child from a large and scattered family, Lear was 15 when he started selling sketches to shopkeepers and coach passengers \u201cfor bread and cheese,\u201d he wrote. He combined that enterprise with what he called \u201cmorbid disease drawings\u201d for London doctors.<\/p>\n<p>By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots, what he said was the first of its kind on a single species. \u201cIllustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots\u201d (1832) includes 42 lush and large, hand-colored lithographs of the birds he most loved. (Lear didn\u2019t mind dying and going to heaven, he once said, but would be more comfortable if parrots were there too.)<\/p>\n<p>The monograph did not make the young Lear rich, but it made him one of the most accomplished natural history artists of his era. He influenced two icons of nature illustration, John Gould and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.audubon.org\/john-james-audubon\">John James Audubon<\/a>, and worked with both.<\/p>\n<p>The Houghton exhibit nicely frames Lear\u2019s golden age of natural history painting (1827-1837). The first of the nine glass cases pays homage to the well-known, portly master of word wit, who often depicted himself as a bird. Look for manuscript examples of his nonsense verse, limericks, illustrated alphabets, and whimsical wildlife. There is also an album of sketches and painting he shared with his sister Ann, 21 years his senior. She not only educated Lear but introduced him to the joy of drawing.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit\u2019s eighth case contains a glimpse of the mature Lear: the man who moved to Rome in 1837 to pursue landscape painting, and the restless soul who wrote three illustrated books of his travels. Look for his \u201cJournals of a Landscape Painter in Albania\u201d (1851), including a tint lithograph, called \u201cAvlona,\u201d that depicts pelicans arrayed on a sere plain. (Lear, severely nearsighted by then, first thought they were rows of white stones.)<\/p>\n<p>The adventurous Lear was one of the first foreign visitors to remote regions of Albania, and he made art excursions to exotic locales around the Mediterranean, North Africa, and India. (He lived most of his adulthood abroad, and died at his villa in San Remo, Italy, in 1888.) Much of the Houghton collection is landscape studies, which Lear meticulously recorded and filed for future commissions. Most of his landscapes are watercolors, the medium he used in his nature art. But he aspired to oil painting as well. \u201cThat\u2019s what got you ahead,\u201d said Mayo of Victorian-era landscape artists, \u201cthese large, grandiose oil paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His transition from nature art to landscapes was, in part, inspired by sketching trips to Ireland and the Lake District in the mid-1830s. But the shift was also practical: Lear\u2019s eyesight was failing fast. In 1837 he told Gould that he had to withdraw from scientific illustration, lamenting that he would soon only be able to draw ostriches.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"none","id":113120,"caption":"By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots; examples of his work are included in the exhibit.","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/birdsmonkey_500.jpg","alt":"","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/birdsmonkey_500.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-113120\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots; examples of his work are included in the exhibit.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/birdsmonkey_500.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-113120\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots; examples of his work are included in the exhibit.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/birdsmonkey_500.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-113120\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots; examples of his work are included in the exhibit.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Lear at ages 15 to 25 had poor eyesight, asthma, chronic bronchitis, epilepsy, and bouts of depression. But he also had the ambition you might expect of a boy scrambling for an income. (Lear, the 20th of 21 children, was born into a prosperous family. But his father, a stockbroker, suffered a financial reversal. By age 4, Edward was living with Ann, who home-schooled him.)<\/p>\n<p>The younger Lear also already had a seed of nonsense and whimsy. The exhibit\u2019s second case, for instance, shows Lear\u2019s fruitful and fundamental connection to the London Zoo. But one of the sketches is a parrot study, which includes one bird studying a rotund zoo visitor.<\/p>\n<p>The same case shows Lear as serious and professional. Every detailed hair is in place in his ink, graphite, and watercolor study of a small animal called the rock hyrax.<\/p>\n<p>The pinnacle of the young artist\u2019s serious pursuit of scientific illustration was his parrot work, which the exhibit lovingly outlines. Plate 7 in his monograph \u201cRed and Yellow Macaw\u201d is among his most famous images. Nearby is Lear\u2019s study for the same final image, complete with brush-stroked swatches of watercolor as he searched for the right tints.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit\u2019s fifth case, on his dealings with Gould, shows Lear\u2019s fondness for owls, the animals that later appeared so frequently in his nonsense sketches. His \u201cGreat Horned or Eagle Owl,\u201d created for Gould\u2019s \u201cThe Birds of Europe\u201d (1832-1837), shows the young Lear vividly as he was: a master of the real.<\/p>\n<p>No display of early Lear would be complete without a look at the influences of Lord Edward Stanley, the 13th earl of Derby, who met Lear in 1831. Soon after, Derby commissioned Lear to record the animals in the menagerie at his family estate near Liverpool, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.knowsleyhallvenue.co.uk\/\">Knowsley Hall<\/a>. (The 170-acre collection, maintained by a staff of 30, eventually included 619 species of birds alone.)<\/p>\n<p>Lear spent countless hours over four years drawing mammals, birds, and reptiles, making more than 100 life portraits. Lear also enjoyed his first sketching tours \u2014 and his first years as a painter abroad \u2014 thanks to Derby\u2019s fortune.<\/p>\n<p>It was at Knowsley too that Lear wrote and illustrated some of his first nonsense poems. \u201cThe earl noticed that all the children and the grandchildren of the house were disappearing after dinner,\u201d said Mayo. \u201cThey were going down to the housekeeper\u2019s room to hear Mr. Lear recite limericks and draw pictures for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\"The Natural History of Edward Lear\" continues through Aug. 18 at Houghton Library.<\/em><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Lear at ages 15 to 25 had poor eyesight, asthma, chronic bronchitis, epilepsy, and bouts of depression. But he also had the ambition you might expect of a boy scrambling for an income. (Lear, the 20th of 21 children, was born into a prosperous family. But his father, a stockbroker, suffered a financial reversal. By age 4, Edward was living with Ann, who home-schooled him.)<\/p>\n<p>The younger Lear also already had a seed of nonsense and whimsy. The exhibit\u2019s second case, for instance, shows Lear\u2019s fruitful and fundamental connection to the London Zoo. But one of the sketches is a parrot study, which includes one bird studying a rotund zoo visitor.<\/p>\n<p>The same case shows Lear as serious and professional. Every detailed hair is in place in his ink, graphite, and watercolor study of a small animal called the rock hyrax.<\/p>\n<p>The pinnacle of the young artist\u2019s serious pursuit of scientific illustration was his parrot work, which the exhibit lovingly outlines. Plate 7 in his monograph \u201cRed and Yellow Macaw\u201d is among his most famous images. Nearby is Lear\u2019s study for the same final image, complete with brush-stroked swatches of watercolor as he searched for the right tints.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit\u2019s fifth case, on his dealings with Gould, shows Lear\u2019s fondness for owls, the animals that later appeared so frequently in his nonsense sketches. His \u201cGreat Horned or Eagle Owl,\u201d created for Gould\u2019s \u201cThe Birds of Europe\u201d (1832-1837), shows the young Lear vividly as he was: a master of the real.<\/p>\n<p>No display of early Lear would be complete without a look at the influences of Lord Edward Stanley, the 13th earl of Derby, who met Lear in 1831. Soon after, Derby commissioned Lear to record the animals in the menagerie at his family estate near Liverpool, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.knowsleyhallvenue.co.uk\/\">Knowsley Hall<\/a>. (The 170-acre collection, maintained by a staff of 30, eventually included 619 species of birds alone.)<\/p>\n<p>Lear spent countless hours over four years drawing mammals, birds, and reptiles, making more than 100 life portraits. Lear also enjoyed his first sketching tours \u2014 and his first years as a painter abroad \u2014 thanks to Derby\u2019s fortune.<\/p>\n<p>It was at Knowsley too that Lear wrote and illustrated some of his first nonsense poems. \u201cThe earl noticed that all the children and the grandchildren of the house were disappearing after dinner,\u201d said Mayo. \u201cThey were going down to the housekeeper\u2019s room to hear Mr. Lear recite limericks and draw pictures for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\"The Natural History of Edward Lear\" continues through Aug. 18 at Houghton Library.<\/em><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Lear at ages 15 to 25 had poor eyesight, asthma, chronic bronchitis, epilepsy, and bouts of depression. But he also had the ambition you might expect of a boy scrambling for an income. (Lear, the 20th of 21 children, was born into a prosperous family. But his father, a stockbroker, suffered a financial reversal. By age 4, Edward was living with Ann, who home-schooled him.)<\/p>\n<p>The younger Lear also already had a seed of nonsense and whimsy. The exhibit\u2019s second case, for instance, shows Lear\u2019s fruitful and fundamental connection to the London Zoo. But one of the sketches is a parrot study, which includes one bird studying a rotund zoo visitor.<\/p>\n<p>The same case shows Lear as serious and professional. Every detailed hair is in place in his ink, graphite, and watercolor study of a small animal called the rock hyrax.<\/p>\n<p>The pinnacle of the young artist\u2019s serious pursuit of scientific illustration was his parrot work, which the exhibit lovingly outlines. Plate 7 in his monograph \u201cRed and Yellow Macaw\u201d is among his most famous images. Nearby is Lear\u2019s study for the same final image, complete with brush-stroked swatches of watercolor as he searched for the right tints.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit\u2019s fifth case, on his dealings with Gould, shows Lear\u2019s fondness for owls, the animals that later appeared so frequently in his nonsense sketches. His \u201cGreat Horned or Eagle Owl,\u201d created for Gould\u2019s \u201cThe Birds of Europe\u201d (1832-1837), shows the young Lear vividly as he was: a master of the real.<\/p>\n<p>No display of early Lear would be complete without a look at the influences of Lord Edward Stanley, the 13th earl of Derby, who met Lear in 1831. Soon after, Derby commissioned Lear to record the animals in the menagerie at his family estate near Liverpool, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.knowsleyhallvenue.co.uk\/\">Knowsley Hall<\/a>. (The 170-acre collection, maintained by a staff of 30, eventually included 619 species of birds alone.)<\/p>\n<p>Lear spent countless hours over four years drawing mammals, birds, and reptiles, making more than 100 life portraits. Lear also enjoyed his first sketching tours \u2014 and his first years as a painter abroad \u2014 thanks to Derby\u2019s fortune.<\/p>\n<p>It was at Knowsley too that Lear wrote and illustrated some of his first nonsense poems. \u201cThe earl noticed that all the children and the grandchildren of the house were disappearing after dinner,\u201d said Mayo. \u201cThey were going down to the housekeeper\u2019s room to hear Mr. Lear recite limericks and draw pictures for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\"The Natural History of Edward Lear\" continues through Aug. 18 at Houghton Library.<\/em><\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>\u201cThe Natural History of Edward Lear,\u201d which is on view at the Houghton Library through Aug. 18, can be summed up rather whimsically:<\/p>\n<p>There was once a man named Lear<br \/>\nWho loved the absurd, that\u2019s clear.<br \/>\nBut his first love \u2014 it\u2019s true \u2014 was the London Zoo,<br \/>\nFor its parrots, bears, and badgers too.<br \/>\nThat patient, penciling, painting, young Lear.<\/p>\n<p>Lear (1812-1888) is best remembered as a master of nonsense in verse, prose, and song. He gave the limerick new life, and along the way created the \u201cruncible spoon,\u201d \u201cthe Jumblies,\u201d and the \u201cbong tree.\u201d But Lear was also an accomplished landscape painter and travel writer. Few people know he composed clever melodies, by ear, to play and sing for friends. (Look at the exhibit\u2019s ninth case for a sample of the music \u2014 a Harvard thesis in the making, perhaps.)<\/p>\n<p>Even fewer people know that the young Lear was a meticulous painter and illustrator of natural history. It\u2019s a little-explored gap in his life, one that the Houghton show hopes to repair. \u201cThis is a relatively unexplored aspect of his career,\u201d said <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2012\/03\/harvard%E2%80%99s-first-impressions\/\">Hope Mayo<\/a>, the Houghton\u2019s Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts.<\/p>\n<p>The first-floor exhibit is pegged to the 200th anniversary of Lear\u2019s birth, and was guest-curated by naturalist, writer, and historian <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ansp.org\/about\/staff\/peck\/\">Robert McCracken Peck<\/a>, a senior fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Thanks to two early benefactors, Philip Hofer \u201921 and <a href=\"http:\/\/research.frick.org\/directoryweb\/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=7306\">William B. Osgood Field<\/a>, the Houghton has the world\u2019s largest collection of Lear paintings. Among the more than 4,000 items are about 200 studies, sketches, and finished paintings related to natural history.<\/p>\n<p>An impoverished child from a large and scattered family, Lear was 15 when he started selling sketches to shopkeepers and coach passengers \u201cfor bread and cheese,\u201d he wrote. He combined that enterprise with what he called \u201cmorbid disease drawings\u201d for London doctors.<\/p>\n<p>By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots, what he said was the first of its kind on a single species. \u201cIllustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots\u201d (1832) includes 42 lush and large, hand-colored lithographs of the birds he most loved. (Lear didn\u2019t mind dying and going to heaven, he once said, but would be more comfortable if parrots were there too.)<\/p>\n<p>The monograph did not make the young Lear rich, but it made him one of the most accomplished natural history artists of his era. He influenced two icons of nature illustration, John Gould and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.audubon.org\/john-james-audubon\">John James Audubon<\/a>, and worked with both.<\/p>\n<p>The Houghton exhibit nicely frames Lear\u2019s golden age of natural history painting (1827-1837). The first of the nine glass cases pays homage to the well-known, portly master of word wit, who often depicted himself as a bird. Look for manuscript examples of his nonsense verse, limericks, illustrated alphabets, and whimsical wildlife. There is also an album of sketches and painting he shared with his sister Ann, 21 years his senior. She not only educated Lear but introduced him to the joy of drawing.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit\u2019s eighth case contains a glimpse of the mature Lear: the man who moved to Rome in 1837 to pursue landscape painting, and the restless soul who wrote three illustrated books of his travels. Look for his \u201cJournals of a Landscape Painter in Albania\u201d (1851), including a tint lithograph, called \u201cAvlona,\u201d that depicts pelicans arrayed on a sere plain. (Lear, severely nearsighted by then, first thought they were rows of white stones.)<\/p>\n<p>The adventurous Lear was one of the first foreign visitors to remote regions of Albania, and he made art excursions to exotic locales around the Mediterranean, North Africa, and India. (He lived most of his adulthood abroad, and died at his villa in San Remo, Italy, in 1888.) Much of the Houghton collection is landscape studies, which Lear meticulously recorded and filed for future commissions. Most of his landscapes are watercolors, the medium he used in his nature art. But he aspired to oil painting as well. \u201cThat\u2019s what got you ahead,\u201d said Mayo of Victorian-era landscape artists, \u201cthese large, grandiose oil paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His transition from nature art to landscapes was, in part, inspired by sketching trips to Ireland and the Lake District in the mid-1830s. But the shift was also practical: Lear\u2019s eyesight was failing fast. In 1837 he told Gould that he had to withdraw from scientific illustration, lamenting that he would soon only be able to draw ostriches.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/birdsmonkey_500.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-113120\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">By age 17, Lear was well-known among naturalists at the London Zoo for his precision illustrations. And by 19, he published a gorgeous monograph on parrots; examples of his work are included in the exhibit.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>Lear at ages 15 to 25 had poor eyesight, asthma, chronic bronchitis, epilepsy, and bouts of depression. But he also had the ambition you might expect of a boy scrambling for an income. (Lear, the 20th of 21 children, was born into a prosperous family. But his father, a stockbroker, suffered a financial reversal. By age 4, Edward was living with Ann, who home-schooled him.)<\/p>\n<p>The younger Lear also already had a seed of nonsense and whimsy. The exhibit\u2019s second case, for instance, shows Lear\u2019s fruitful and fundamental connection to the London Zoo. But one of the sketches is a parrot study, which includes one bird studying a rotund zoo visitor.<\/p>\n<p>The same case shows Lear as serious and professional. Every detailed hair is in place in his ink, graphite, and watercolor study of a small animal called the rock hyrax.<\/p>\n<p>The pinnacle of the young artist\u2019s serious pursuit of scientific illustration was his parrot work, which the exhibit lovingly outlines. Plate 7 in his monograph \u201cRed and Yellow Macaw\u201d is among his most famous images. Nearby is Lear\u2019s study for the same final image, complete with brush-stroked swatches of watercolor as he searched for the right tints.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit\u2019s fifth case, on his dealings with Gould, shows Lear\u2019s fondness for owls, the animals that later appeared so frequently in his nonsense sketches. His \u201cGreat Horned or Eagle Owl,\u201d created for Gould\u2019s \u201cThe Birds of Europe\u201d (1832-1837), shows the young Lear vividly as he was: a master of the real.<\/p>\n<p>No display of early Lear would be complete without a look at the influences of Lord Edward Stanley, the 13th earl of Derby, who met Lear in 1831. Soon after, Derby commissioned Lear to record the animals in the menagerie at his family estate near Liverpool, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.knowsleyhallvenue.co.uk\/\">Knowsley Hall<\/a>. (The 170-acre collection, maintained by a staff of 30, eventually included 619 species of birds alone.)<\/p>\n<p>Lear spent countless hours over four years drawing mammals, birds, and reptiles, making more than 100 life portraits. Lear also enjoyed his first sketching tours \u2014 and his first years as a painter abroad \u2014 thanks to Derby\u2019s fortune.<\/p>\n<p>It was at Knowsley too that Lear wrote and illustrated some of his first nonsense poems. \u201cThe earl noticed that all the children and the grandchildren of the house were disappearing after dinner,\u201d said Mayo. \u201cThey were going down to the housekeeper\u2019s room to hear Mr. Lear recite limericks and draw pictures for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\"The Natural History of Edward Lear\" continues through Aug. 18 at Houghton Library.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16007,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2009\/07\/james-d-watson-and-edward-o-wilson-in-conversation\/","url_meta":{"origin":113006,"position":0},"title":"James D. Watson and Edward O. Wilson in conversation","author":"harvardgazette","date":"July 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) will present \u201cLooking Back, Looking Forward: A Conversation with James D. Watson and Edward O. Wilson\u201d on Sept. 9. The event will be held at 5:30 p.m. in Sanders Theatre.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/wilson2_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/wilson2_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/wilson2_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":143015,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/09\/houghtons-heroes\/","url_meta":{"origin":113006,"position":1},"title":"Houghton\u2019s heroes","author":"harvardgazette","date":"September 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Houghton Library, Harvard's home to literary and historical treasures, is more like a museum than your typical library.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/houghton_03_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/houghton_03_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/houghton_03_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":60513,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2007\/10\/yale-honors-e-o-wilson-with-verrill-medal\/","url_meta":{"origin":113006,"position":2},"title":"Yale honors E. O. Wilson with Verrill Medal","author":"harvardgazette","date":"October 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Yale honors Wilson with Verrill Medal \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus E.O. Wilson received the Addison Emery Verrill Medal from Yale\u2019s Peabody Museum of Natural History on Wednesday (Oct. 17) in New Haven, Conn. Awarded by the curators and trustees of the museum, the medal was established in 1959 to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Tech","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/science-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60618,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2007\/11\/edward-o-wilson-awarded-2007-catalonia-international-prize\/","url_meta":{"origin":113006,"position":3},"title":"Edward O. Wilson awarded 2007 Catalonia International Prize","author":"harvardgazette","date":"November 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus, has been selected from a pool of 235 nominees, from 227 institutions in 27 countries, to receive the 2007 Catalonia International Prize. Wilson was cited by the selection jury for the courage and honesty he has shown while defending his theories, \"when it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29613,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2009\/11\/irony-and-identity\/","url_meta":{"origin":113006,"position":4},"title":"Irony and identity","author":"harvardgazette","date":"November 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Philosopher and classicist Jonathan Lear, this year\u2019s Tanner lecturer, begins his two-lecture look at irony and identity.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/tanner_076_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/tanner_076_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/tanner_076_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":157872,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/06\/nine-cabot-fellows-named\/","url_meta":{"origin":113006,"position":5},"title":"Nine Cabot Fellows named","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Nine professors in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences have been named Walter Channing Cabot Fellows.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278578,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113006\/revisions\/278578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113006"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=113006"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=113006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}