we have no known image of catesby himself. we have no letters of his before he reaches south carolina at age 39, so i basically took it as an opportunity to just nerd out on history in great britain, of the intellectual ferment, the dazzling work being done and the interest that so many british men and women had at that time in natural history and the sciences. you know, it was a scientific revolution. isaac newton was the president of the royal society when catesby landed in charleston, so you had the ferment and the coffee houses were the places to be where for a penny, you get a saucer of coffee and read all the newspapers that you wanted to and also, there were pirates. so, catesby landed in the golden age of piracy in the caribbean. >> talk about that, he responded in his efforts by black beard. >> not directly, but black beard blockaded charleston before catesby arrived there. and one of the things we don't understand, think about how many obstacles that were to the safe passage of plants and animals, collections and spe

we have no known image of catesby himself. we have no letters of his before he reaches south carolina at age 39, so i basically took it as an opportunity to just nerd out on history in great britain, of the intellectual ferment, the dazzling work being done and the interest that so many british men and women had at that time in natural history and the sciences. you know, it was a scientific revolution. isaac newton

interesting times can definitely drive a narrative like the ones we're going to talk about today and mark catesby, certainly at the time. from rien at the present with some extinctions and resuscitations and recoveries, to mark, who landed in charleston in 1722 at a time when almost no one in great britain had any idea what an ivory-billed woodpecker looked like or a magnolia tree or an american bull frog and he's largely responsible for the fact that many saw those images for the first time. his masterpiece, the natural history of the carolinas, between 1731-1746 is the landmark in natural history and books about natural history and the story of how he got to america, what he did while he was here and his going back and creating this masterpiece. it's pretty much the story of my book. he's a landmark ecologist, i think we'll have time to talk about today. he was exceptional for many reasons, had many firsts to his name and i think he's definitely worth talking about, especially since he has sort of found himself in the shadow of that audubon guy. so looking forward to talking about it today. >>