James Culbertson McConnell,[1] usually abbreviated as J. C. McConnell (born 1844[1] – died July 25, 1904, Liberty, New York) was one of the world's most acclaimed scientific illustrators.
McConnell was an anatomist with the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C. For thirty-five years, he drew "many thousand exquisite drawings" of fossils, shells and bones for scientific publications. In an obituary, it was stated that, "as a draughtsman, in black and white line for scientific purposes, he had no equal in this country, if in the world."[2]
He is most well known for his "incomparable pictures of shells"[3] and illustrated a number of publications by the famous malacologist William Healey Dall.[4] McConnell also illustrated fossils described by Charles Doolittle Walcott.[4]
McConnell's illustrations continued to be used long after his death. For example, most of the black and white illustrations in R. Tucker Abbott's American Seashells (1954) were by McConnell.[5]
McConnell has been described as "one of those shadowy-figured artisans about whom little is known." Although he held a medical degree and used the title "doctor", "officially he was a clerk."[4]
Gallery edit
-
Miocene gastropods from Maryland, 1904 -
Bibliography edit
McConnell's illustrations appear in (partial list):
- 1880. Indiana Dept of Statistics and Geology, Second Annual report of the Department of Statistics and Geology, Indianapolis.
- J. C. McConnell & George M. Wheeler. 1875-1889 (the Carboniferous section published in 1881) Carboniferous (invertebrate fossils of New Mexico) In: Report upon United States Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, GPO, Washington.
- Charles A. White 1884. A review of the fossil ostreidæ of North America. Washington, GPO.
- Maryland Geological Survey 1901. Eocene. Baltimore.
- William Healey Dall 1903. Contributions to the Tertiary Fauna of Florida. Philadelphia.
- 1904. Maryland Geological Survey, Miocene, Baltimore, (published posthumously).
References edit
- ^ a b Coan E. V., Kabat A. R. & Petit R. E. (15 February 2009). 2,400 years of malacology, 6th ed. American Malacological Society, 830 pp. + 32 pp. [Annex of Collations].
- ^ Anonymous (W. H. Dall). 1904. Dr. J. C. McConnell. Science (New Series), American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York, 20(501): 188.
- ^ G. Dallas Hanna (March 1931). "Illustrating Fossils". Journal of Paleontology 5(1): 49, 63.
- ^ a b c Yochelson E. L. (1988). Charles Doolittle Walcott, paleontologist, Kent State University Press, p. 156.
- ^ R. Tucker Abbott (1954). American Seashells, D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., p. viii.
