Iconographic Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature, and Art

Johann Georg Heck was a German publisher, author, lithographer, and geographer. In his mammoth illustrated encyclopedia, Heck covers mathematics, natural history, geography and history, followed by ethnology, warfare, shipbuilding, sea creatures, then finally religion, architecture, and culture. This American edition, titled Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature, and Art, which appeared in 1851, was translated from the German and edited by the first curator - and later, second Secretary - of the Smithsonian Institution, Spencer Fullerton Baird. Heck's Iconographic Encyclopedia includes over 500 engraved plates, each comprised of numerous individual illustrations (over 12,000 total), arrayed beautifully on the page. The accompanying text volumes (not included with this set of plates volumes) contain detailed information on the visual source material. It remains an essential resource for period imagery, an aesthetic marvel, and something of a mid-19th century visual time capsule. Note: two volumes, plates volumes only,