Walter Lawry Buller. A history of the birds of New Zealand. Illustrations by J.G. Keulemans. London: John Van Voorst, 1873.
Born in New Zealand and educated at Wesleyan College, Auckland, Walter Lawry Buller (1838-1906) showed a passion for natural history and ornithology from his schooldays. He was admitted as a fellow of the Linnean Society, London, in 1858, when he was nineteen. Buller delivered his first scientific paper at the New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin in 1865 and received a silver medal, establishing him as a recognized authority on New Zealand birds.
The 1873 first edition of Buller’s work displayed here stands as his masterpiece, and the illustrations have become standard images of native birds, familiar to many New Zealanders. The illustrations, by renowned Dutch bird artist and lithographer J.G. Keulemans (1842-1912), were printed by lithograph then hand coloured. Five hundred copies were published. In 1879, Buller was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of London. The newspapers heralded him as “the first scientific man, born and educated in any of the colonies, who has received this distinction”.
Walter Lawry Buller. A history of the birds of New Zealand. Illustrations by J.G. Keulemans. London: John Van Voorst, 1873.
Open image in new window