Carolyn Bartlett Gast
Carolyn Bartlett Gast | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 30, 1929 Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | c. September 2015 |
| Alma mater | Boston University |
| Known for | scientific illustration |
Carolyn Bartlett Gast (April 30, 1929[1] – c. September 2015[2]) was an American scientific illustrator.
Early life and education
[edit]Gast was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[1] She studied book illustrating at Boston University and spent a year training and drafting for the Army Map Service.[2]
Career
[edit]Gast worked at the Departments of Vertebrate and Invertebrate Zoology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C.,[3] from 1954 to 1985.[4] She was a scientific illustrator who used a stereoscopic microscope to make two-dimensional drawings of specimens.[5]
Her most well known and reproduced illustration is of the loriciferan phylum pliciloricus enigmatus,[6] which was discovered in 1983 by the Danish biologist Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen in the microscopic ecosystem between grains of sand.[4] She was also credited for providing illustrations in publications such as the academic journal Crustaceana.[7][8]
Gast was founder of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators in 1968,[4] and contributed two chapters to the The Guild Handbook of Scientific Illustration.[9] She invented an ultra mini-vacuum cleaner that could be held in one hand for taking excess carbon dust from the illustration board.[2]
In 1984, the National Museum of Natural History held an exhibition of 80 of Gast's works, including illustrations of fossils, fish, insects and invertebrates.[2] She retired a year later, in 1985.
Outside of her scientific work, Gast was also interested in medieval illuminated manuscripts and created a three-dimensional alphabet in this style.[5]
She died in 2015.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Who's who in American art. R. R. Bowker Publishing. 1976. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-8352-0850-5.
- ^ a b c d e Nicholson, Trudy (2015). "In Memoriam: Carolyn Gast". Journal of Natural Science Illustration. 4. Archived from the original on December 5, 2023. Retrieved February 8, 2025.
- ^ "2005 Exhibition of The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators". The Journal of Biocommunication. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
- ^ a b c Benko, Raven Capone. "Science Illustration: A Creative Door for Early Women in Science". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved February 8, 2025.
- ^ a b Nicholson, Trudy. "lluminations of a 3D Alphabet". Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.
- ^ a b Gradwohl, Judith. "Recently Revealed 2". Ocean Planet. Retrieved February 8, 2025.
- ^ Manning, Raymond B. (1970). "Mithrax (Mithraculus) commensalis, a New West Indian Spider Crab (Decapoda, Majidae) Commensal with a Sea Anemone". Crustaceana. 19 (2): 157–160. ISSN 0011-216X.
- ^ Bowman, Thomas E.; Manning, Raymond B. (1972). "Two Arctic Bathyal Crustaceans: The Shrimp Bythocaris cryonesus New Species, and the Amphipod Eurythenes gryllus, with in Situ Photographs from Ice Island T-3". Crustaceana. 23 (2): 187–201. ISSN 0011-216X.
- ^ Hodges, Elaine R. S. (May 29, 2003). The Guild Handbook of Scientific Illustration. John Wiley & Sons. pp. xi. ISBN 978-0-471-36011-7.
External links
[edit]- Illustration of entacmaea quadricolor (known as Bubble-Tip Anemone or Four-Colored Anemone) by Gast via Google Arts & Culture