The Taylor White research project focuses on the documentation and analysis of a unique “paper museum” created over a period of nearly forty years by an individual focused on the great taxonomic enterprise of the eighteenth century that laid the foundation for our current understandings of nature and ecology. The visual raw material is exceptional – 938 never published “scientific portraits” of animals, birds and fish and reptiles, commissioned by British jurist Taylor White (1701-1772) and accompanied by original observations written both on the images themselves, and in over 700 manuscript notes. The Taylor White collection is a unique assemblage and a testament to the passion of an eighteenth-century naturalist…