ZSL | Edward Lear and ZSL

Written by

Ann Sylph, MSc, MCLIP

Visiting Researcher

4 September 2026

Edward Lear may be better known today for his limericks and nonsense poetry - such as ‘The Owl and the Pussy-cat’ - but before this he was an incredibly talented zoological artist, beginning his career with us here at ZSL.

His most famous work depicting animals is his wonderful Illustrations of the family Psittacidae, or parrots, the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured, published in 1832.

In June 1830, at the age of 18, he was given permission to sketch in the Parrot House at London Zoo (then called the Zoological Gardens as the word ‘zoo’ had not been used) and also at ZSL’s Museum at 33 Bruton Street in Mayfair, where living birds were housed while aviaries were being built at the Zoo. As well as living birds, the Museum gave ZSL Fellows access to a huge number of skins and specimens, and by 1828 there were already 4,000 bird specimens in ZSL’s Museum. In the very popular Parrot House, a young keeper named Goss held the birds for Lear to sketch.

His work on parrots was unusual for the time in several ways:- it was dedicated to a family of birds rather than a particular geographical region or birds generally; thanks to ZSL he used living specimens of birds as much as possible depicting them in life-like poses; he used a new technique call lithography which uses a stone plate for printing, giving a softer appearance when compared to other printing techniques, giving the appearance of watercolours; it was printed as a large folio size; he self-published the work and had to learn to make the lithographic plates himself as he could not afford to pay others to do so.

Initially it would be a subscription publication with a few plates issued at intervals. Although never fully completed, for instance there is no accompanying text, the volume is an incredible achievement with 175 copies being published containing 42 beautiful and detailed hand-coloured lithographic plates.

Lithograph by Edward Lear Blue and yellow macaw

Taken from 'Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots, the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured...' by Edward Lear, published in 1832.

Lear and ZSL

Following his introduction to ZSL, almost as soon as the Zoo opened in 1828, he ‘networked’ with many individuals involved with us leading to further introductions and work. Initially he was commissioned to provide illustrations as wood engravings for The Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated, edited by ZSL’s Secretary Nicholas A. Vigors and Vice-Secretary, Edward T. Bennett. Lear provided images of a lemur and blue-and-yellow macaws. William Harvey, a former apprentice to the wood engraver Thomas Bewick, always tried to illustrate animals from life and he was in charge of the illustrations for these books, and Lear adopted his approach.

For Lear, as for many other artists of the time, our Zoological Gardens were a source of constant inspiration and our Prince Philip Library and Archive holds important clues to his thought process. Lear must have considered publishing lithographs as Sketches of Animals in the Zoological Gardens drawn from life by E. Lear as a proof title page together with three plates depicting the head of a sleeping lion, a harpy eagle and a polar bear, can be found in our archives. This probably dates from the period 1828-32 and was not published, he probably decided to be more ambitious and focus on his book on parrots.

He went on to work for others associated with ZSL such as John Gould, ZSL’s Curator of Birds, contributing plates to Gould’s Birds of Europe and A monograph of the Ramphastidae, or family of toucans. He provided illustrations for the publications of Thomas Hornsey Bell, Vice-President of ZSL for 11 years, his A monograph of the Testudinata and History of British Quadrupeds.

A snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) by Edward Lear, taken from John Gould's Birds of Europe Vol.1.

Transactions of the Zoological Society and Original artworks

Lear was also commissioned to provide illustrations for ZSL’s new scientific publication, Transactions of the Zoological Society. The Proceedings contained shorter papers presented at Scientific Meetings of the Society, whilst the Transactions published longer, more detailed papers.

Lear contributed eight plates in total to the first two volumes of the Transactions, 1834-41. For seven of these, our archives are fortunate to hold his original watercolours. All these illustrate mammal species which does seem rather strange when Lear’s birds were so highly regarded.

Volume 1.

Plate 3 Cynictis steedmannii*
Plate 4 Lagotis cuvieri (Chinchilla)*
Plate 21 Cryptoprocta ferox (Fossa)*
Plate 24 Felis leo goojratensis (Asian lion)*
Plate 37 Macropus parryi ( Whiptail wallaby)*

Volume 2.

Plate 6 Pteropus whitei (bat)
Plate 16 Octodon cumingii*
Plate 17 Ctenomys magellanicus*

*ZSL has the original watercolours on which these prints are based

An illustration of a fossa by Edward Lear

Cryptoprocta ferox (Fossa) by Edward Lear, 1833.

Maneless Lion of Guzerat by Edward Lear, 1835

Additionally our archives hold a further four mammal paintings which are thought to be unpublished:
Waterbuck, Red lechwe, Kob antelope and Sand gazelle. Plus one original painting of birds depicting Northern red bishop.

Lear and Lord Stanley

ZSL President, Edward Smith Stanley, later the 13th Earl of Derby, became a patron of Lear and commissioned him to illustrate the animals in his extensive collection at Knowsley just north of Liverpool. Eventually in 1846 a lavish two-volume work was published, Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall with a text by John Edward Gray of the British Museum and a ZSL Fellow. Volume one contains 17 lithographs based on Lear’s illustrations of birds, small mammals and a turtle. Volume two depict hoofed mammals illustrated by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins.

An illustration of a red macauco sitting on a branch

A red macauco (Lemur rufus) from 'Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall,' by Edward Lear

And his ‘nonsense’? It developed at Knowsley, through ZSL. Although Lear had written ‘parodies’ earlier in his life, these developed into his ‘nonsense’ rhymes while at Knowsley and entertaining the children in the Earl of Derby’s extended family.

Over the past 200 years, ZSL has inspired generations of artists, poets and authors – bringing people closer to nature than ever before.

View the original artworks in ZSL’s Library catalogue

(Select ‘Search Artworks’ from the lefthand sidebar, then put ‘Lear’ into the search box and click on ‘search’. You can now browse through art works by Lear.)

Interested in viewing Lear’s original artworks in person?

The ZSL Prince Philip Library and Archive is open to the public by appointment.

Interested in more ZSL-linked artists?

Books mentioned

Bell, Thomas. A history of British quadrupeds, including the Cetacea, London : John Van Voorst, 1837.
Bell, Thomas. A monograph of the Testudinata, London : [s.n.], 1836-42.
Gould, John. Birds of Europe, [In 5 vols.] London : published by the author, 1837
Gould, John. A monograph of the Ramphastidae, or family of toucans, London : published by the author, 1834[-35].
Gray, John Edward and Edward Lear. Gleanings from the menagerie and aviary at Knowsley Hall, [vol. 1], Knowsley : [printed for private distribution], 1846.
Lear, Edward. Illustrations of the family Psittacidae, or parrots, the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured, London : Lear, 1832.
Lear, Edward. Sketches of Animals in the Zoological Gardens drawn from life by E. Lear, [unpublished proof plates and wrapper, 1828-32].
Vigors, Nicholas A. et al. The Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated, …Vol. I. Quadrupeds ; Vol. II. Birds, London : Charles Tilt, 1831.
Transactions of the Zoological Society can be viewed online to subscribers.

Edward Lear and ZSL