Once again, Libraries GIF-maker Richard Naples has made headlines for his animated GIFs! Congrats to Richard for winning the Nature and Environment award from the Digital Public Library of America's "GIF IT UP" contest. About the Maria Sibylla Merian image he used, Richard writes: "In the year preceding the turn of the 17th century, Merian traveled with her daughter to the Dutch colony of Surinam in South America to carefully document the metamorphosis of the butterfly. Born in 1647, Merian was a budding entomologist even at the tender age of 13, spending her time collecting caterpillars and carefully observing their transformations into butterflies or moths. At a time when insects were poorly understood and often interpreted as evil or otherwise ominous, Merian blazed a path in entomology. In her career spanning decades, she left a lasting impact on the fields of entomology, naturalism, and scientific illustration, made even more remarkable considering she did so at a time when women were rarely educated let alone published. Her magnum opus, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium was first published in 1705, a few years after she was forced to return to Amsterdam from Surinam after contracting malaria. This GIF pulls from the 1730 edition. In considering what to submit for this contest, I knew right away that something from Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium would be high on my list. Bringing to life these vignettes was a small effort in comparison to the amazing legacy of work left by this amazing woman." 

Don't see the butterflies moving in the image above? See the full effect at Imgur. Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium is in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, and is also available online through the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Just in the nick of time at the end of Martha's centennial year, a resolution passed the Senate on December 17 calling attention to the 100th anniversary of the extinction of the last known passenger pigeon. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) reported the passage, which is the final act of the 113th congressional session. Martha, the last of her kind, was on display at the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens until her death in 1914. Immediately following her death, Martha was packed in an enormous 300-pound block of ice and shipped to the Smithsonian by train.  

 

A delegation from Senator Portman's office visited the Smithsonian Libraries exhibition, Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America, in July (pictured above). Martha is on display in the exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History through October 2015. Read more about the legislation. Read more about Once There Were Billions. Read an article on Martha by Helen James, Curator-in-Charge of the Division of Birds at the National Museum of Natural History.