E. L. (Etienne Leopold) Trouvelot

Born in France in 1827, Étienne Léopold Trouvelot came to the United States after the political upheaval that followed Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte’s coup. He first pursued interests in natural history, especially insects, before turning more deeply toward astronomy.

Trouvelot became known for remarkably detailed pastel drawings of planets, comets, eclipses, and other celestial sights. Working with major observatories, including Harvard College Observatory, he produced images that were valued not just for their beauty but also for their careful observation at a time when astronomical photography was still limited.

He is also remembered for an unfortunate episode in entomology: his experiments with silk-producing moths are widely associated with the release of the spongy moth, which later became a destructive invasive species in North America. Trouvelot returned to France in the 1880s and died there in 1895, leaving behind a legacy that is both artistically striking and historically complicated.