Get Free Scientific Illustrations From the Biodiversity Heritage Library
Whether you’re looking for a new wallpaper, a tattoo idea, or just have fun browsing through illustrations from the past, Biodiversity Library is a treat for you. Its thousands of public domain images and digitized books are also educational in nature, collecting observations of the natural world over seven centuries and around the world.
The whole idea is to collect information about the world’s biodiversity in one place ; many libraries and museums have collections, but BHL brings together a wealth of information and makes collections available either as public domain releases or under licenses such as Creative Commons for material that is otherwise still copyrighted.
BHL has an Instagram account where they post the best moments from their collection, and a collection of Flickr albums if you prefer to view them. The images and book pages are also searchable through the BHL website, or you can browse through the collections. Perhaps you want to read about cats and society , or see the work of natural history illustrators who were women , or print black and white drawings to color in . Hyperallergic, when writing about the collection recently pointed to these Hawaiian flowers and this taxidermist’s guide . There is plenty to do here, whether you are a fan of nature, art, history, or just three.