Publisher, political reformer and world historian, this son of Isaac Lea assisted his father in illustrating and describing fossil shells. These plates containing 55 shells are two of the four plates used to illustrate H. C. Lea's Description of Some New Fossil Shells From Teritary of Petersburg, Virginia, published in the transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, v. 9, p. 229-274, 1843. The two plates are signed by H. C. Lea and the identifying legend in his hand.