A Lepidochrome Print of Hyalophora Cecropia

Looking at this moth “picture” may topple you into the uncanny valley – it’s mostly a real moth, from a species now known as Hyalophora cecropia. This page from a rare book in the library at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History features an astounding type of print: a lepidochrome.

For each image, a prepared specimen of a butterfly or moth was pressed onto printing paper treated with a thin coat of gum arabic adhesive. Everything you see of the moth’s wings here is real. The body of the moth is a hand-colored engraving.

This book – Moths and Butterflies of the United States – was written by Sherman Foote Denton. The one-to-one specimen to image ratio kept Denton busy collecting and preparing over 50,000 moths and butterflies to complete just 500 copies of his three-volume book, published in 1900.

Mark your calendars, Butterflies Alive! opens at the Museum May 23