14 Free Animal Posters From Illustrated Larousse Dictionaries

A printable collection of vintage Animal posters from one of two famous French-illustrated Larousse Dictionaries. They are in the public domain.

Nouveau Larousse illustré : Dictionnaire Universel Encyclopédique and  Le Larousse pour tous. Both were published in France between 1898-1924.

Many of the wonderful zoological illustrations were by French naturalist painter Adolphe Millot. I have already showcased his natural history posters of insects and birds, his sealife posters and his wonderful antique botanicals. Here I will focus on the vintage Larousse animal posters.

The Free Zoological Posters

To download the vintage animal posters just click the title above the poster. A higher resolution image should open as a new tab in your browser. Then either print straight from your browser or save the poster to your hard drive.

If printing from a home printer I recommend that you go into your printers advanced menu settings and select the best quality print you can.

1. Animal Posters Fourrures (fur)

This animal poster is from Le Larousse Pour Tous and is of furry animals. As this is a French illustration by Adolphe Millot all the animals are listed in with their French names.

The poster includes wolves, foxes, otters, rabbits and moles to name a few animals.

Fur is defined as a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of many animals. It is a characteristic feature of mammals and consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath.

Fur helps both waterproof the skin and insulate animals. It has many uses: protection, sensory purposes, waterproofing, and camouflaging, with the primary usage being temperature regulation.

Interestingly, there are a couple of animals in the poster that don’t have fur but have been included such as the swan and duck. That is probably because the feathers of these animals are collected and used commercially.

2. Adolphe Millot Mammiferes A-Pour Tous

This is the first of two mammal posters in Le Larousse Pour Tous.

Mammals are animals with skeletons and have distinctive characteristics that distinguish them from reptiles and birds. These are the ability to produce milk for their young. Having fur or hair on their bodies and three middle ear bones.

This first animal poster of mammals contains many of the biggest African animals, of giraffes, elephants, hippopotamus and rhinoceros.

3. Adolphe Millot Mammiferes B-Pour Tous

The second animal poster of mammals. This poster includes the monkeys and apes, the big and small wild cats (such as tigers), and the sea mammals.

For more wonderful images of mammals visit this collection of vintage animal prints.

4. More Mammals From Larousse Illustre

Another poster of mammals from the French Illustrated dictionary.

Right in the center is the largest land mammal, the elephant.

5. Wild Mammals with Claws

This zoological poster is of mainly clawed wild mammals. Animals such as wild cats, bears, primates

6. More Wild Mammals

More wild mammals, a lot of the animals on this zoological poster have hooves.

7. Domesticated Animals Poster

A collection of domestic animals from pets such as cats and dogs to farm animals such as cattle, pigs and chickens. The poster even includes caged bird pets such as canaries.

8. Domestic Animals 2

Another poster of domestic mammals includes various species of dogs, farm animals and small pets such as rabbits.

9. Vintage Animal Poster of Reptiles

Reptiles include animals such as turtles, crocodiles, snakes,  lizards, and turtles. Some of the characteristics of reptiles are that they are cold-blooded. These animals have to use sun and shade to regulate their internal body temperature. 

All reptiles have scales or scutes.  Scutes are the shells of turtles and the armor of crocodiles and are very similar to scales. Also unlike mammals reptiles lay eggs.

10. More Vintage Reptile Illustrations

11. Anthropods Animal Poster

Anthropods are invertebrate animals having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. They account for 80 percent of all animal species.

Arthropods must molt (shed their skin which is the exoskeleton) in order to grow. Common arthropods include spiders, insects, mites, ticks, shrimp, lobster, scorpions, crayfish, and barnacles.

Black and White Zoological Posters

A few of the Animal posters in the original Larousse Dictionaries were in black and white but different images to the posters above. I thought I’d also share them.

12. Mammals in Black & White

13. Mammals Balck & White Poster 2

14. Reptiles Black and White

I hope you enjoyed these fabulous animal illustrations and zoological posters. You will probably enjoy some of the other zoological collections I have on Pictureboxblue. These include cool polar bear art, vintage illustrations of rabbits and toucan paintings.

The complete Adolphe Millot poster collection can be found here, and tree posters from Larousse here.

If you enjoyed these vintage posters, then check out this collection of educational geography posters. And this collection of nature posters of Oliver Goldsmith which feature many posters of animals.