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Charles Waterton (1782-1865), Naturalist

Sitter in 2 portraits
Waterton was a pioneering naturalist and traveller who invented a new method of taxidermy. Between 1816 and 1824 he explored the tropical forests of South America, travelled around North America and visited the West Indies. In 1825 he published the successful Wanderings in South America, which recorded natural history, explained his technique for preserving specimens and detailed his adventures - including wrestling with a caiman, a reptile similar to an alligator. Having inherited the family seat of Walton Hall in Yorkshire in 1806, Waterton then devoted the next forty years to managing his estate as a bird sanctuary.