Sarah Stone: Natural Curiosities from the New Worlds

  • Christine E. Jackson
Merrell Holberton/Natural History Museum, London, £29.95, $45

These feather ‘god heads’ were brought to England from the Hawaiian islands on one of Captain James Cook's ships in 1780, and painted by Sarah Stone. The artist was employed by the entrepreneur Sir Ashton Lever to record the ‘curiosities’ in his private museum. Besides ethnographic material collected on Cook's round-the-world voyages, the museum contained specimens used by naturalists for their descriptions of new species. From Sarah Stone Natural Curiosities from the New Worlds by Christine E. Jackson(Merrell Holberton/Natural History Museum, London, £2995, $45). The book is in the new Art of Nature series which highlights little-known artists whose work is preserved in the Natural History Museum.