John Buchanan (1819–1898): New Zealand’s first scientific illustrator

John Buchanan was New Zealand’s first locally-based official scientific illustrator, preparing illustrations for a wide range of scientific publications. He was also an experienced botanist, publishing papers on the local flora. From 1862 until his retirement in 1885 Buchanan worked as an assistant to James Hector, undertaking fieldwork and a variety of technical projects. From 1868 onwards he undertook the time-consuming task of preparing illustrations for the first eighteen volumes of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute.