San Diego Natural History Museum
A major renovation in 2016 made the Natural History Museum's research library into an airy, welcoming space for the public, and created a gallery for their collection of watercolor "plant portraits" by Albert Robert Valentien. In 1908, the journalist and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps commissioned Valentien to document the wildflowers of California. For ten years, he traveled from the Mexican border to the northern California coast, and the results are the marriage of a botanist's eye and an artist's touch. The collection consists of 1094 paintings depicting 1500 species, with approximately 10 paintings on display at a time.
Also popular are illustrations of dragons and mythical beasts, taken from the 1640 "Serpentum et Draconum Historiae" by Ulisse Aldrovandi and the rare 1517 "Hortus Sanitatis," one of the first encyclopedias of natural history. The museum is understandably proud of their complete "Birds of America," a Double Elephant Folio from John James Audubon. The term refers to the size of the book, 40 inches by 30 inches, large enough that birds could be shown life-size.
Where: 1788 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101