"Apart from the common and scientific names of many species, it is for the quality of his illustrations that he [Swainson] is best remembered. His friend William Elford Leach, head of zoology at the British Museum, encouraged him to experiment with lithography for his book Zoological Illustrations (1820–23). Swainson became the first illustrator and naturalist to use lithography, which was a relatively cheap means of reproduction and did not require an engraver. He began publishing many illustrated works, mostly serially. Subscribers received and paid for fascicles, small sections of the books, as they came out, so that the cash flow was constant and could be reinvested in the preparation of subsequent parts. As book orders arrived, the monochrome lithographs were hand-coloured, according to colour reference images, known as ‘pattern plates’, which were produced by Swainson himself. It was his early adoption of this new technology and his natural skill of illustration that in large part led to his fame.^{[8]" (Wikipedia article on William John Swainson, accessed 03-2017).}

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

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.

"During his lifetime (1751-ca. 1840), English-born naturalist and artist John Abbot rendered more than 4,000 natural history illustrations and profoundly influenced North American entomology, as he documented many species in the New World long before they were scientifically described. For sixty-five years, Abbot worked in Georgia to advance knowledge of the flora and fauna of the American South by sending superbly mounted specimens and exquisitely detailed illustrations of insects, birds, butterflies, and moths, on commission, to collectors and scientists all over the world. Between 1816 and 1818, Abbot completed 104 drawings of insects on their native plants for English naturalist and patron William Swainson (1789-1855). Both Abbot and Swainson were artists, naturalists, and collectors during a time when natural history and the sciences flourished. Separated by nearly forty years in age, Abbot and Swainson were members of the same international communities and correspondence networks upon which the study of nature was based during this period. The relationship between these two men-who never met in person-is explored in John Abbot and William Swainson: Art, Science, and Commerce in Nineteenth-Century Natural History Illustration. This volume also showcases, for the first time, the complete set of original, full-color illustrations discovered in 1977 in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand. Originally intended as a companion to an earlier survey of insects from Georgia, the newly rediscovered Turnbull manuscript presents beetles, grasshoppers, butterflies, moths, and a wasp. Most of the insects are pictured with the flowering plants upon which Abbot thought them to feed. Abbot's journal annotations about the habits and biology of each species are also included, as are nomenclature updates for the insect taxa. Today, the Turnbull drawings illuminate the complex array of personal and professional concerns that informed the field of natural history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries" (publisher).