Eleazar Albin

Eleazar Albin (fl. 1690 - c.1742) was an English naturalist and watercolourist illustrator who wrote and illustrated a number of books including A Natural History of English Insects (1720), A Natural History of Birds (1731–38) and The Natural History of Spiders and other Curious Insects (1736). He has been described as one of the "great entomological book illustrators of the 18th century".

Nothing is known of his early life, though he may have been German-born and claimed to have been in Jamaica in 1701. In 1708 he is known to have been married and living in Piccadilly, London. According to autobiographical details in A Natural History of English Insects, Albin taught watercolour painting before being instructed in natural history by silk weaver and naturalist Joseph Dandridge.

Works

• W. Derham & E. Albin. A natural history of English insects. Illustrated with a hundred copper plates, curiously engraven from the life: and (for those who desire it) exactly coloured by the author (London, Innys, 1729).
• W. Derham & E. Albin. A natural history of birds A natural history of birds etc. (3 vols. London, 1731-1738).
• E. Albin. A natural history of spiders, and other curious insects (London, Tilly, 1736).
• E. Albin. A Natural History of English Songbirds (1737). With coloured plates.
• R. North & E. Albin. The History of Esculent Fish" (1794).

References

• Albin, Eleazar (1731–1738): A natural history of the birds (3 volumes). William Innys, London. Digitized version of vol. 1 Digitized version of vol. 3
• Osborne, Peter (2004): "Albin, Eleazar (d. 1742?)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. accessed 23 July 2007.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Albin, Eleazar". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

External links

• A Natural History of English Insects (Digitised at GDZ Göttingen).