Neave Parker
Neave Parker (1910-1961), natural history artist. After an early, rather disastrous career in banking, Parker served in the RAF during the Second World War. After making the acquaintance of Maurice Burton, a scientific associate at the Natural History Museum and also honorary science editor at the Illustrated London News, he began collaboration with Burton to produce animal illustrations for a non-technical audience. The first of his drawings of prehistoric animals appeared in the Illustrated London News on 30 September 1950. Burton then introduced Parker to William Elgin Swinton (1900-1994), palaeontologist at the Museum. Together they produced a series of reconstructions of Mesozoic vertebrates that accompanied articles in the Illustrated London News. Of particular note were a series of Jurassic and Cretaceous animals which appeared between 1956 and 1960, which were later incorporated into Swinton's book, The Dinosaurs (1970)
