Green-lipped Abalone, Haliotis laevigata

This scientific illustration by John James Wild was commissioned by Sir Frederick McCoy, Director of Museum Victoria as part of the two-volume work "The Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria" which was Museum Victoria's first major publication beginning in 1878. Wild had been the artist on the 1872-76 Challenger expedition. On this floating laboratory, Wild used dissection and the microscope extensively to describe and illustrate marine specimens. Frederick McCoy clearly saw the potential of this experience to elevate the scientific sophistication of his own publications. This watercolour of a Green-lipped Abalone was unique for Wild. He rarely worked up pencil images in colour, instead waiting for a proof of the linework to complete a precise hand-coloured image, which would then act as a guide or 'pattern plate' for the master printer to finish. It is clear from instructions to the printer from his proofs that he possessed an unerring capacity to plan for the colour separations that made his images the most technically sophisticated in the Prodromus. The Prodromus project followed a popular formula of the time, seeking to identify and classify the natural wonders of the 'new world'. Such publications reached a peak in popularity with the work of John Gould in England and the earlier work of James Audubon in America. In Australia, many professional and amateur publications, including Aldine's systematic studies of the colonies and Louise Anne Meredith's Bush Friends From Tasmania, contributed to the genre. The publication of the Prodromus was an enormous undertaking, utilising the work of numerous artists, collectors, lithographers and publishers, over an extended period of time. Although costly in both financial and professional terms, it was met with critical acclaim and wide popular support. Financial battles were waged and lost by McCoy, but ultimately the Prodromus has stood the test of time and remains one of Museum Victoria's finest publications. McCoy died without completing his systematic study, but even at the time few believed that 'any of us will live to witness the completion of the work, if the entire Fauna of Victoria is to be illustrated.'