For almost 40 years, the British jurist and Fellow of the Royal Society Taylor White (1701–1772) actively engaged in commissioning artists to paint plants and animals for his ‘paper museum’. White amassed a collection of almost 1000 drawings of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles, acquired by McGill University in 1927. His first recorded purchase was a watercolour by George Edwards (1694–1773). He also acquired works from Eleazar Albin (fl. 1690–ca 1742) and Jacob van Huysum (ca 1687–1740), but the majority of the watercolours were painted by two artists, Charles Collins (ca 1680–1744) and Peter Paillou (ca 1712–1782). In 2018 a research group at McGill University Library received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the project ‘Undescrib'd: Taylor White's paper museum’. The project produced a complete catalogue of the White collection, including attribution of all unsigned works, and digitized all paintings and notes. This paper documents the process surrounding the original creation of the collection, reviewing the careers of the artists and White's relationship with them, the value of the commissions and the challenges of painting natural history subjects. It also describes the mechanics of painting, including pigments, papers used and artists' techniques.

近 40 年来，英国法学家和皇家学会院士泰勒怀特 (1701-1772) 积极委托艺术家为其“纸博物馆”绘制植物和动物。怀特收集了近 1000 幅鸟类、哺乳动物、鱼类、两栖动物和爬行动物的画作，这些画作于 1927 年被麦吉尔大学收购。他第一次购买的是乔治·爱德华兹（1694-1773 年）的水彩画。他还从利亚撒阿尔滨获得作品（佛罗里达州。  1690- CA  1742）和雅各布·凡·哈瑟姆（CA 一六八七年至1740年），但大多数的水彩画由两位艺术家的绘画作品，查尔斯·科林斯（CA  1680至1744年）和彼得·帕利卢（钙 1712-1782）。2018 年，麦吉尔大学图书馆的一个研究小组获得了加拿大社会科学与人文研究委员会的资助，用于“未描述：泰勒·怀特的纸博物馆”项目。该项目制作了一个完整的怀特收藏目录，包括所有未签名作品的归属，并将所有绘画和笔记数字化。本文记录了围绕该系列最初创作的过程，回顾了艺术家的职业生涯以及怀特与他们的关系，委员会的价值以及绘画自然历史主题的挑战。它还描述了绘画的机制，包括颜料、使用的纸张和艺术家的技巧。