Ostraciontes. - Kofferfilche. Book illustration from Library of Congress

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (1834 – 1919), German zoologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist, and artist who promoted and popularized Charles Darwin's work, was born on 16 February 1834, in Potsdam (then part of the Kingdom of Prussia). The published artwork of Haeckel includes over 100 detailed, multi-color illustrations of animals and sea creatures, collected in his Kunstformen der Natur ("Art Forms of Nature").

Alois Senefelder, the inventor of lithography, introduced the subject of colored lithography in 1818. Printers in other countries, such as France and England, were also started producing color prints. The first American chromolithograph—a portrait of Reverend F. W. P. Greenwood—was created by William Sharp in 1840. Chromolithographs became so popular in American culture that the era has been labeled as "chromo civilization". During the Victorian times, chromolithographs populated children's and fine arts publications, as well as advertising art, in trade cards, labels, and posters. They were also used for advertisements, popular prints, and medical or scientific books.