Overview Alexander Lawson, engraver, died in 1846, leaving behind a great quantity of his own and other artist's work. His daughters, Malvinia and Mary, constructed a scrapbook filled with these artworks, which they donated to the Academy. The scrapbook contains 532 prints, drawings, and watercolors illustrating natural history and scientific books or periodicals, including zoological, ornithological and medical illustrations, as well as technical illustrations and illustration for novels and...

Overview Helen Elizabeth Lawson, the second daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth De Scaife Lawson, was born in Philadelphia sometime in or about the year 1808. An accomplished scientific illustrator, her contemporaries described her work to be "so perfect as certainly leave nothing to be desired", and H.A. Pilsbry stated that he considered her illustrations for Amos Binney's The Terrestrial Air-breathing Mollusks of the United States, to be the finest shell illustrations ever made. This collection...