J. C. McConnell

Who was J. C. McConnell?

Dr. James Culbertson McConnell, usually abbreviated as J. C. McConnell was one of the world's most acclaimed scientific illustrators.

McConnell was an anatomist with the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C. For thirty-five years, he drew "many thousand exquisite drawings" of fossils, shells and bones for scientific publications. In an obituary, it was stated that, "as a draughtsman, in black and white line for scientific purposes, he had no equal in this country, if in the world."

He is most well known for his "incomparable pictures of shells" and illustrated a number of publications by the famous malacologist William Healey Dall. McConnell also illustrated fossils described by Charles Doolittle Walcott.

McConnell's illustrations continued to be used long after his death. For example, most of the black and white illustrations in R. Tucker Abbott's American Seashells were by McConnell.

McConnell has been described as "one of those shadowy-figured artisans about whom little is known." Although he held a medical degree and used the title "doctor", "officially he was a clerk."