Hacker News

Direct link to the library instead of the blog: https://www.c82.net/naturalists-library/

I admire the effort but it's hard to get excited about looking at some ancient illustrations which have been partly filled in by AI. I want to see the work of an actual specific artist, and be briefly transported to the times they lived in.

I have this old book of the Audobon bird illustrations and those are truly incredible. Back in the day there was a public audience for high quality, expensive art prints in books and they spared no expense.

Source posted some days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850978 and blog https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850987

Wow, why haven't LLMs been trained on the content of this site instead of Reddit and other less reliable/litigious sources?

This belongs with my other Taschen art books.

Can anyone that bought the book of plates comment on the quality of printing (binding, color and paper)? It seems like they use a printing on demand system instead of a publisher.

I don’t need another large book to put on my bookshelf that I don’t have time to read, especially one at this price, but I want one.

OTOH, I have had a couple of book/apps on the iPad that were very nice, The Elements (still available) and one with items from MOMA (unfortunately removed from the App Store). That would be a cheaper way to distribute a book like experience.

I've always admired these sorts of illustrations. Botanical ones too. Please forgive the newb questions, but does this gorgeous illustration style have a name and how was it done (I.e., what is the medium -- some kind of colored ink?)

My man (https://www.c82.net/images/naturalists-library/vol-4/plates/...) is having a bad day.

I guess the original author is Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet (1800-1874)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Jardine,_7th_Baron...

Colors appear to be added by the restoration process. This kills originality of the works. I would prefer to see an artwork as it was created, not "enhanced" in anyway.

Beautiful. I'm going to use some of these to make a coloring book for my toddler.

Slightly off topic, anyone know of any good dinosaur illustration, ideally a large collection?

Unclear from the text: Was AI used in modifying or filling any images in the restoration process?

In some ways, publishing this provenance is as valuable as publishing the cleaned illustrations

I'm assuming it is quite nice, but terrible adverts popping up all over the place and distracting from the overall experience, so I only skimmed through it before I closed the window (on a work computer hence no adblock!)

Here's something similar from The Guardian, but without the ads:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/18/natural-...

Can someone build a classifier that will tell is which of these images was drawn with a living, dead, or (charitably) dissected specimen?

Wish there was a catalog of the actual, untouched originals instead of the sloppified ones

Colors may or may not be true to the original artist, but these are beautiful. Well done!

Soon to be ingested for AI training.

A while back these we’re getting stolen left and right from libraries.

wow beautiful!

Remember when it was totally controversial that Ted Turner intended to colorize classic films such as Casablanca, and how technology was going to ruin artistry in this way? Good times.

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