Professor David Low's detailed study of farm animals, showed prize winning horses, cattle, and sheep, with landscape background. Many of the breeds shown are now extinct, although they are forerunners of today's breeds of domestic animals. Low was a professor of agriculture at Edinburgh University who also set up an agricultural museum in Edinburgh with the assistance of a grant from Earl Spencer. He produced this pioneering work as a reference for those interested in the relatively new science of selective breeding. His mission was to help farmers and breeders understand the importance of matching a breed to its environment while improving its productivity.

William Shiels, member of the Royal Scottish Academy, was commissioned to produce a series of paintings of all the significant breeds then of economic significance in Great Britain. These paintings were then used as the basis for the present work with the addition of Low's text. Shiels' work is appreciated today for its faithfulness to the actual appearance of the animals, as opposed to idealized versions meant to please their owners, which were common at the time. William Nicholson, also a Royal Scottish Academy member, made the drawings after Shiels' paintings to convert them to prints.

Reference:

Royal Scottish Academy. http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/pages/members/mem_frame.html