Theodor De Bry, designer, draftsman, engraver, and printmaker, was born in 1528 in Lìege into a wealthy Protestant family. He was trained as a goldsmith and engraver.

Around 1570 De Bry fled the Netherlands to escape religious persecution settling first in Strasbourg, Germany, then in England in 1586, and finally in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1590, where he and his sons set up a printing business.

While in England De Bry had begun engraving copies of illustrations made by John White of scenes of the New World. White had been on the 1585 voyage from England to Virginia, had spent thirteen months on Roanoke Island, and had created a series of seventy watercolor drawings of indigenous people, plants, and animals. Starting in 1590 De Bry began printing his engravings of White's illustrations along with a reissue of text written by Thomas Hariot describing Virginia from this 1585 voyage. De Bry published one volume each year until his death in 1598. His family continued the series until 1634, expanding the ten volumes on the Americas to thirty and including voyages to Asia. De Bry took liberties with White's drawings, embellishing them with figures from his imagination. They were, nevertheless, the source of knowledge for many Europeans about how the Americas looked.

Source: Theodor De Bry getty.edu (2000); Theodor De Bry PhiladelphiaPrintShop.com; Theodor De Bry University of Virginia (IATH) (2000); Theodor De Bry The Engines of Our Ingenuity (1988-1997).