Not every plate in Catesby's Natural History is a bird: this one records a rock crab from two angles, a full dorsal view above and a study of the underside and claws below, the kind of paired documentation a working naturalist needed to actually identify a specimen rather than just admire it. Catesby collected across the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and the Bahamas over roughly a decade of fieldwork funded by English subscribers, and his surveys of marine and reptile life alongside birds and plants made his book the first attempt at a genuinely comprehensive natural history of the American Southeast, not merely an ornithology text. What to notice: the crab's mottled red-and-cream shell pattern, individually hand-colored, still reads as a near-exact match for the Sally Lightfoot and related rock crab species found along the same Caribbean and Atlantic coastline today.

Maker: Mark Catesby
Date: 1731–1743
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00288

As chosen: 18 x 24 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	18 x 24 in
Outside size	19.6 x 25.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 10 in	366	Excellent	Trimmed 8.4%
8 x 12 in	333	Excellent	Trimmed 9%
11 x 14 in	266	Excellent	Trimmed 6.7%
12 x 16 in	244	Excellent	Trimmed 2.3%
12 x 18 in	222	Excellent	Trimmed 9%
16 x 20 in	183	Good	Trimmed 8.4%
16 x 24 in	166	Good	Trimmed 9%
18 x 24 in	162	Good	Trimmed 2.3%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
20 x 30 in	133 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 30 in	122 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 36 in	111 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 40 in	97 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 48 in	81 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 60 in	66 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged

Scanned: 2026-10-07
Master file: 2,932 x 4,000 px, srgb
Tone: Darks 77, lights 227 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
Colour: 0% vivid
Sharpness: 8.09