Specimen plates were the primary way naturalists shared discoveries before photography, and the best ones were made with genuine scientific ambition. Engravers and chromolithographers worked from physical specimens, rendering color, scale, and surface detail with a precision that doubled as beauty. The tradition runs from hand-colored copper engravings of the early 19th century through the richer, more saturated chromolithographs that followed. What's shown here are period originals from that tradition.