Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Collection and Gallery

John and Peggy Maximus Gallery

Current Exhibits
• The Illustrated Bird
Opens September 12

Archived Exhibits
• Slither
• Painting History
• Artistry & Necessity
• Omnis Ex Ovo
• Daring Pursuits
• For Love of Nature
• Natural Symmetry
• Garden of Earthly Delights
• America My Country
• Classifying Nature
• Beetles Up Close
• Orchidaceae
• Yesteryear USA
• Birds of a Feather

Online Gallery

Maximus Collection Home

After ten years of exhibiting prints in a small but elegant space created out of a former storage closet, the Maximus Wing was built onto the existing Museum. The new addition including the present gallery, a spacious office and a climate controlled collection room in which to house the growing collection of antique prints opened in 1995.

The Museum’s collection of more than 1,100 natural history prints represents a sampling of European and American artists and illustrators from the 17th to 19th centuries. Most of these date from a time in which the world’s flora and fauna were being documented for the first time. European voyages of exploration resulted in vast collections of plants and animals new to science. Explorers were discovering new lands beyond the boundaries of the known world. Naturalists and artists were often sent along on these expeditions so that specimens could be recorded and drawn where they were found. Brought back to the capitals of Europe, the drawings were engraved onto copper plates and printed for an eager public anxious to see what the new, mysterious discoveries looked like.

Our Museum is one of the few places in the world to have a gallery dedicated to showing this combination of history, science, nature and art. Why are these prints so important? They give us a glimpse into history, help us to understand how the sciences developed, and show how people communicated in an earlier age. Originally used for identification, as printing methods improved and more artists were involved, they became valuable for the intrinsic beauty-a blend of art and science.

Maximus Gallery Schedule

Linda Miller (above) and Kathy Marsailes (below) care for and exhibit the antique natural history print collection.

Three exhibits are presented in the gallery each year. Prints must be over 100 years old. Along with selections from our own collection, material is oftened borrowed from private lenders and institutions.

Do you have prints that you would like to lend or donate? We welcome additions to our collection that are in good condition and are appropriate in subject matter. If you would like to discuss this, please contact us here at the Maximus Gallery.

Digitizing our collection of prints in order to make them more accessible to the public through print and electronic media is a goal of the Maximus Collections Department. Because archival conditions are required to preserve these exceptional artworks for future generations, they are presently unavailable for viewing except through exhibitions, which by their very nature can only display a small fraction of this very large collection at any one time.

Linda Miller, Curator, John & Peggy Maximus Gallery, ext. 133
lmiller@sbnature2.org

Archived prints in the Maximus Collection