John Abbot, a pioneer naturalist of Georgia, was born in London on June 1, 1751, and from an early age devoted himself to the study and delineation of insects. By sixteen he was proficient with water colors and had collected, painted, and exhibited his work in London. Seeking new collecting grounds, he came to Virginia in 1773 and, after three years there, settled in Georgia. During the next sixty years he devoted himself to the study of birds, insects, and plants, and some of his specimens are still found in the great museums of Europe. A publication entitled THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RARER LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS OF GEORGIA, with 104 plates, was compiled from Abbot’s notes and brought out by Sir James E. Smith in 1797. Thousands of other paintings, mostly of birds and insects, remain unpublished and are widely scattered. Two albums of Abbot’s paintings still remain in Georgia, one of birds at the University of Georgia at Athens and one of insects at Emory University.