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Historical Bibliography Updated: June 16, 2026

Fauna Boreali-Americana, or, the zoology of the northern parts of British America: Containing descriptions of the objects of natural history collected on the late northern land expeditions, under command of Captain Sir John Franklin, R.N. 4 vols.

Publication Details

London: Richard Bentley and Josiah Fisher, 1829 CE–1837 CE.

Richardson, surgeon, naturalist and Arctic explorer, was physician and naturalist on Sir John Franklin’s first two Arctic expeditions, and collected a large number of plant and animal specimens from the Canadian Arctic. On his return to England after the second expedition he wrote this four-volume work of natural history, first published between 1829 and 1837. He devoted a separate volume to  mammals, birds, fish and insects found in the Canadian Arctic. Includes 110 engraved plates of which 72 are hand-colored. The edition of this work appears to have been divided up by various different publishers. Title pages exist as above, or as published in London by John Murray, and others. See the digital facsimile of the volumes from the Hathi Trust at this link. Vol. 4, on entomology by William Kirby, was also issued with the tile Entomologia boreali americana.

Catalog MetadataReference Information
Entry Number#13135
Permanent Linkhttps://staging.historyofmedicine.com/entry/15393
Author Bio LinkWikipedia ↗
External URLfauna-borealiamericana-or-the-zoology-of-the-northern-parts-of-british-america-containing-descriptions-of-the-objects-of-natural-history-collected-on-the-late-northern-land-expeditions-under-command-of-captain-sir-john-franklin-rn-4-vols

Geographic Context

Publication place: London