Drug Utilisation Research Group (UK & Ireland) Conference 2007. Capturing Health Gain—Do We Need A Bigger Net Or Smaller Mesh? The Royal Society Of Medicine, London, UK, 18 January 2007

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 588-595
Keyword(s):  
Research Group ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Drug Utilisation ◽  
Health Gain

Taylor White's ‘paper museum’

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Dickenson ◽  
Jennifer Garland
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Research Group ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
University Library ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mcgill University ◽  
Complete Catalogue

For almost 40 years, the British jurist and Fellow of the Royal Society Taylor White (1701–1772) actively engaged in commissioning artists to paint plants and animals for his ‘paper museum’. White amassed a collection of almost 1000 drawings of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles, acquired by McGill University in 1927. His first recorded purchase was a watercolour by George Edwards (1694–1773). He also acquired works from Eleazar Albin ( fl.  1690– ca  1742) and Jacob van Huysum ( ca  1687–1740), but the majority of the watercolours were painted by two artists, Charles Collins ( ca  1680–1744) and Peter Paillou ( ca  1712–1782). In 2018 a research group at McGill University Library received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the project ‘Undescrib'd: Taylor White's paper museum’. The project produced a complete catalogue of the White collection, including attribution of all unsigned works, and digitized all paintings and notes. This paper documents the process surrounding the original creation of the collection, reviewing the careers of the artists and White's relationship with them, the value of the commissions and the challenges of painting natural history subjects. It also describes the mechanics of painting, including pigments, papers used and artists' techniques.

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