J. C. McConnell

Dr. James Culbertson McConnell,[1] usually abbreviated as J. C. McConnell (born 1844[1] – died July 25, 1904, Liberty, New York) was one of the world's most acclaimed scientific illustrators.

Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae drawn by McConnell, 1904

McConnell was an anatomist with the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C. For thirty-five years, he drew "many thousand exquisite drawings" of fossils, shells and bones for scientific publications. In an obituary, it was stated that, "as a draughtsman, in black and white line for scientific purposes, he had no equal in this country, if in the world."[2]

He is most well known for his "incomparable pictures of shells"[3] and illustrated a number of publications by the famous malacologist William Healey Dall.[4] McConnell also illustrated fossils described by Charles Doolittle Walcott.[4]

McConnell's illustrations continued to be used long after his death. For example, most of the black and white illustrations in R. Tucker Abbott's American Seashells (1954) were by McConnell.[5]

McConnell has been described as "one of those shadowy-figured artisans about whom little is known." Although he held a medical degree and used the title "doctor", "officially he was a clerk."[4]

Bibliography

McConnell's illustrations appear in (partial list):

References
  1. Coan E. V., Kabat A. R. & Petit R. E. (15 February 2009). 2,400 years of malacology, 6th ed. American Malacological Society, 830 pp. + 32 pp. [Annex of Collations].
  2. Anonymous (W. H. Dall). 1904. Dr. J. C. McConnell. Science (New Series), American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York, 20(501): 188.
  3. G. Dallas Hanna (March 1931). "Illustrating Fossils". Journal of Paleontology 5(1): 49, 63.
  4. Yochelson E. L. (1988). Charles Doolittle Walcott, paleontologist, Kent State University Press, p. 156.
  5. R. Tucker Abbott (1954). American Seashells, D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., p. viii.
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