A Survey of Natural History Wood Engravings

As part of ArtStart's summer exhibitions which showcase wood engraving, we invite you to hear Sarah Finn, Special Collections Librarian at Milwaukee Public Library, present A Survey of Natural History Wood Engravings, tracing the deep connection between wood engraving and the natural world. The presentation will take place at 1pm on June 22nd at The Hilgermann Center in downtown Rhinelander. Finn's talk spans from Thomas Bewick's landmark late-eighteenth-century volumes - A General History of Quadrupeds and A History of British Birds - through the explosion of illustrated books and periodicals in the nineteenth century, when wood engraving became the dominant printmaking method of its era. Her presentation offers an accessible and visually rich overview of how the art form shaped the way generations of readers encountered the natural world. Finn earned her MLIS with an Archival Concentration and a History MA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is also the curator of the beloved Instagram account @romanceofbooks, which has amassed more than 137,000 followers worldwide for its celebration of natural history illustration found in historic books. The lecture is free and open to the public.