Bibliotheca Herpetologica 20(3)

Bettelheim, M. P. and S. Rouot. 2026. A Study of Jacques Burkhardt’s Scientific Drawings of Western Pond Turtles (Actinemys spp.) in the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard University). Bibliotheca Herpetologica 20(3):21–41.

Swiss scientific illustrator Jacques Burkhardt (November 8, 1808 – February 20, 1867), best known for his role as naturalist Louis Agassiz’s “personal artist,” was a prolific artist whose work in the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) at Harvard University remained until recently largely unpublished. The Jacques Burkhardt Collection’s 976 scientific drawings include watercolor and/or pencil drawings of invertebrate and vertebrate species, a good number of them fishes and turtles. Amongst the turtle illustrations are two watercolor drawings clearly identified as Emys nigra, which today could be one of two species under the Western Pond Turtle complex (Actinemys spp.). Herein, we revisit the life of Jacques Burkhardt; investigate Burkhardt’s two Emys nigra drawings and an additional four as-yet unidentified drawings suspected to be Western Pond Turtles; compare them with preserved Western Pond Turtle specimens in the MCZ; identify matches between specimens and drawings; and provide an overall analysis of the three MCZ Western Pond Turtle specimens that we believe are the basis for five of Burkhardt’s six Actinemys spp. drawings.