John Abbot’s love of insects could be seen in his watercolor drawings of bugs of all types. His “The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia” — considered one of the finest illustrated entomological publications of its era — combined Abbot’s watercolors with his notes on encounters with the creatures. Born in London in 1751, Abbot came to the American South in 1773 to collect and draw insects and birds for natural history collectors in Britain. But he never returned to Britain, instead living most of his life in Georgia, making thousands of watercolor drawings and supplying thousands of specimens to British, European and American clients.
Yet, Abbot is little known today. “Loving Insects” aims to rectify this by detailing Abbot’s work as an artist, specimen hunter and naturalist and elevating him as a major figure in early American natural history.