Colorful Neotropical parrots were amongst the first and most frequent exotic animals to be imported by Europeans from the “New World” of the Americas, becoming key figures in what would become known as the Columbian exchange. There has been an ongoing effort to locate and identify images of Neotropical parrots in the visual record of early modern Europe, with the classification of many remaining unsettled in the scholarship. Proper identification of these images can be valuable data for reconstructing historical biogeography and transatlantic trade; especially compelling is the potential of certain “mystery parrots” in the visual record to support the existence of taxa which may have gone extinct due to colonization and trade. However, it is important to recognize the potential pitfalls of trying to assert positive identifications through these centuries-old images. As parrots are amongst the most colorfully diverse taxa of birds on the planet, often, plumage color is a key diagnostic factor in making an identification; and yet, there are a variety of reasons why the colors of any one individual’s image may not be enough to confirm its scientific classification. Reading colors as recorded in the visual record must therefore be approached with caution and with an interdisciplinary knowledge of both the science and art of color. This paper offers a list of scientific and artistic variables which should be considered when reading color clues to identify Neotropical parrots in early modern European art, including explanations and illustrated examples of these factors, which scholars from across fields interested in engaging in such "historical birding" can consult.

Opossums (Order Didelphimorphia) are marsupial mammals endemic to the Americas. They are also the first marsupials Europeans ever encountered, over a century before any Australasian species. Because of their unique marsupial characteristics, opossums have historically been viewed as an “anomalous” animal form across both Indigenous American and European cultures, and thus developed a rich and complex transatlantic cultural history. By tracing the development of opossum imagery through the millennia, one can uncover clear patterns of how their distinct features became embedded in iconographies relative to biogeocultural sphere, and how certain iconographic conventions were transmitted through various media both within and between cultures. The single most important flashpoint in this historical visual timeline was the transatlantic convergence of cultures post-1492, as this was the catalyst which not only jumpstarted this visual record on the European side, but also curtailed it for centuries on the Indigenous American side. While European opossum images proliferated, a once diverse and widespread Indigenous American iconography was all but erased within a generation of conquest. However, it appears at least a few opossums managed to survive this apparent iconographic extinction, embedded within the imagery of early Spanish colonial projects illustrated by Indigenous artists, while Indigenous ethnozoological knowledge also influenced the production of European images. This thesis will examine how, through cross-cultural currents and syncretic processes, opossum iconography developed on both sides of the Atlantic during the Early Modern Period (fifteenth through eighteenth centuries), with an emphasis on where and how Indigenous knowledge survived in this visual record.

By their very nature writing manuals encourage viewer participation, as they illustrate how to form lines into letters. In Johann Neudörffer's “Gute Ordnung” (Good order, 1538–50s) this genesis of lines extends beyond pure pedagogy. By displaying etchings in mirror writing alongside true-sided counterproofs, Neudörffer invites viewers to consider methods of mechanical production of seemingly handwritten lines. His text-images share their self-aware attention to linear aesthetics and process with drawings and etchings by Albrecht Altdorfer and Albrecht Dürer. As Neudörffer's manual taught the formation of beautiful written lines, it also trained contemporaries to become sophisticated consumers of linear beauty in figurative art.

The frontispiece of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), added to increase the book’s humanitarian and commercial appeal, is an important “first” of Black portraiture. Yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to the engraved representation of the poet’s dark skin and its contribution to her complicated reception. While engraving’s abstractions had long been used to commemorate idealized (white) individuals, an Enlightenment understanding of corporeal skin as a changeable surface meant that engraving’s linear syntax also lent itself to derogatory characterizations of Black skin as an “immoveable veil” that masks the expressions of Black subjects.

Renowned for his innovative work with silkscreen printing, Lou Stovall's works are part of numerous collections, including the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Phillips Collection. Washington Post art critic Paul Richard once wrote, "As a printer of his own art, and of the art of many others, as a framer and installer and shepherd of collections, Stovall has inserted more art into Washington than almost anyone in town."

Of the Land: The Art and Poetry of Lou Stovall presents a series of prints and accompanying poems that showcase the artist's work during the 1970s, when he was developing his unique silkscreen technique and exploring both natural and abstract elements. An introduction by the book's editor and artist's son, Will Stovall, along with an autobiography from the artist anchor the Of the Land series in its time and place—a period of jazz, protest, and prolific art production in Washington, DC, that birthed the Washington Color School. Stovall's contributions, as well as his collaborations with well-known artists like Jacob Lawrence, Sam Gilliam, Elizabeth Catlett, and Robert Mangold, have cemented him as one of the most significant American artists of our age.

Part of a tradition of African American artists and thinkers who met at Howard University, Lou Stovall created the Workshop in 1968, a small, active silkscreen studio printing posters for arts and DC-focused events. His deep influence on the silkscreen medium, the art community, and DC will be part of his lasting legacy.

The first reference work to cover all engravers working on copper in Britain and Ireland 1714–1820

This biographical dictionary of engravers working on copper encompasses both those who produced fine art prints, and also those who engraved book illustrations for medical, technical and literary works, all of which played a more important part than is usually realised in spreading information in the age of Enlightenment. Some 3,000 biographical entries draw on much unpublished information, researched over four decades, notably records of apprenticeship, genealogy, insurance and bankruptcy as well as newspaper advertisements and contemporary accounts.

This is the first reference work to cover all engravers working on copper in Britain and Ireland 1714–1820. Many biographical entries describe celebrated engravers producing “fine art” prints of paintings, which spread knowledge about living and dead artists. However, this book also builds up a more complex picture of the occupation of printmaking and includes engravers, many previously unresearched, who engraved ephemeral material, such as trade cards, bank notes, and satirical prints as well as the images that spread knowledge across literary, geographical, historical, topographical, medical and technical fields.

Emerging from the post-war period, printmaking underwent a marked elevation in status and transition from specialist medium to one widely adopted by some of the foremost names in contemporary art. This book charts how Britain emerged from the post-war years and thrived in the early 1960s, navigated the social changes of the 1970s and 1980s, and saw the ascendency of contemporary British art from the 1990s to the present day. From wood engravings and etchings to lithographs and screenprints, the versatility of the printmaking medium has enabled artists to expand their practice to explore new possibilities. The works featured in the book are all drawn from Pallant House Gallery’s extensive collection of over 2,500 prints. More than 100 artists are represented, including Edward Bawden, Enid Marx, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton, Barbara Hepworth, Lubaina Himid, David Hockney, Lucian Freud, Paula Rego, Grayson Perry, Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili, and many more.

Simon Martin is director of Pallant House Gallery. Louise Weller is head of exhibitions at Pallant House Gallery.