This dissertation traces changing conceptions of nature through the close examination of natural history illustrations by five naturalist-artists who explored the wilderness regions of North America, from 1680 through 1880. On their explorations, John Banister (1650-1692), Mark Catesby (1683-1749), William Bartram (1739-1823), Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) and Timothy H. O'Sullivan (1840-1882) produced images which not only reflected prevailing attitudes toward the natural world, but which also acted as catalysts, bringing about major transitions in western cosmology.

In this study, two major themes emerge from the detailed analysis of these men's work. The first concerns the impact, during this period, of a systematic empirical analysis of Creation on the role played by visual images as purveyors of truth. The second involves the simultaneous shift in western cosmology away from an understanding of Creation as a neatly-ordered hierarchy of clearly definable parts, toward a view of the cosmos as an unbreakable web of interdependent elements and forces. It was precisely in the arena of early environmental thought that American naturalist-artists made a profound impact on the course of the natural sciences--an impact that can be seen clearly only through the structure of their works.