Day: August 23, 2014

Front facade of Houghton Library

The Poet as Naturalist: Thomas Gray’s copy of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae

Among the most precious books from the library of Charles Eliot Norton, Harvard’s first Professor of Art History, is the poet Thomas Gray’s copy of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae. Gray’s youthful interest in natural history was fostered by his uncle Robert Antrobus, an Assistant Master at Eton; in his later years he cherished his uncle’s copy…