Cloud study by Luke Howard, 1803: [A distant shower coming from behind an elevated point of land, in which are represented the superior sheet stretching in different parts to windward, and cumuli advancing towards entering the mass, the whole of which constitutes the nimbus] / L. Howard delt; Lowry direxit. - nd. [1803]. Sepia engraving, 13x20cm. Above castle landscape. Plate from: Phil. Mag. XVII, 1803, plate VIII, captioned p.345

Chemist and amateur meterologist Luke Howard captured the different shapes and colours of clouds in these delicate pencil and watercolour sketches. Along with observations of height and movement, he managed the unimaginable and classified the clouds. Howard identified three basic families of clouds, using Latin names: cirrus ('curl of hair'), stratus ('layer') and cumulus ('heap' or 'pile'). He then added a further four subcategories - cirro-cumulus, cirro-stratus (nimbus) to explain the way clouds could swiftly change in appearance or join with others in the sky. Howard collaborated with the artist Edward Kennion to produce more picturesque cloud sketches for the third edition of his 'Essay on the Modification of Clouds' published in Alexander Tilloch’s 'Philosophical Magazine' in 1865.