George Edwards: The Bedell and his Birds

Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753)

Edwards was ‘employed by many curious gentlemen in London to draw rare and foreign birds’ and his books shed valuable light on the world of 18th Century collectors.

Edwards’ work was part of the surge of interest in observing and classifying the natural world in the 18th Century. Voyages of discovery revealed new worlds and new species, which were acquired by ‘curious gentlemen’ - the aristocrats, intellectuals and naturalists centred on the Royal Society in London. Collectors such as Sir Hans Sloane, were prepared to pay handsomely for drawings and Edwards was quick to exploit this newfound career. Edwards himself became a member of the Royal Society in 1757 and received its Copley Medal for outstanding achievement in 1750. He was in good company: John Harrison received the medal for his chronometer the year before and Benjamin Franklin for his work on lightning conductors the year after.

Richard Mead (1673-1754)

The success of his books brought Edwards into contact with many influential patrons. These included the Duke of Richmond who kept a large aviary in his Whitehall House and a menagerie at Goodwood and Richard Mead, the most eminent physician of the day. Other physicians who lent specimens to Edwards include Dr Robert Nesbitt who owned a collection of Chinese butterflies, Dr Matthew Lee lent his exotic beetles and Dr James Munro, an expert ornithologist, advised Edwards on seasonal plumage changes.

Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778)

Edwards established a long friendship by correspondence with the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). Linnaeus greatly valued Edwards’ work, using his descriptions for his Systema Naturae. He wrote of Edwards’ illustrations that ’nothing is wanting to the birds but their songs’.

The Pompadour

Edwards’ social life revolved around London’s learned societies.  A love of natural history and especially birds was common among the upper and middle classes and transcended social barriers.  But despite his wide circle of acquaintances, Edwards was a private person, and seemed to lack worldly ambition. He never married and lived for years in the exclusively male environment of the College.