The copies of the drawings of De Man
In the period that De Man composed his drawings, at the end of the 19th century there were no possibilities to make a photocopy or digital scan before sending the drawings to the printer.
After his death, the sister of J.G. de Man wrote a letter (» download letter 1 and letter 2) to J.H. Schuurmans-Stekhoven in which she mentioned that De Man was very afraid that the drawings, which had cost him so much time, would be lost after they had left his house. To prevent that he had to make new drawings after loss of the original ones he made copies on transparent paper; these were not meant to be published, therefore he did not add names.
In the Wageningen collection we have many of these copies; they turned brown but still give a nice impression on his way of working.
(click on the pictures for an enlargement, © Laboratory of Nematology)
