The Balfour & Newton Libraries will be lending one of their books to the Fitzwilliam Museum for their exhibition Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts. The book is Gerald H. Thayer's Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, 1909. The exhibition begins on 16th June 2009 and ends on 4th October 2009. However, the exhibition will be held first at the Yale Center for British Art from 12th February 2009 until 3rd May 2009. Visit the exhibition website at http://www.darwinendlessforms.org/home.html for more information on this ground-breaking exhibition that explores the impact of Darwin's theories on late nineteenth century artists. A stencilled piece of card illustrating dried leaves covers plate xi of Thayer's work and reveals the shape of the copperhead snake when you lift it up. The overall effect demonstrates the camouflage properties of the snake. An image of this is featured on page 114, Fig. 117, in the exhibition catalogue Endless forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts, edited by Diana Donald and Jane Munro. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT: in association with Yale University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: qFY (8).
