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By Owain Johnston-Barnes
Published Aug 12, 2014 at 8:00 am (Updated Aug 12, 2014 at 11:32 am)

A New York institution is this week preparing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of naturalist William Beebe’s historical Bathysphere dive off the coast of Bermuda.

The New York Aquarium, located in Coney Island, will this Friday unveil a new display of drawings and paintings by German nature artist Else Bostelmann, all based on Dr Beebe’s first hand descriptions of the deep sea life he observed during his record-breaking August 15, 1934 dive.

The American researcher and his partner, Bathysphere inventor Otis Barton, plunged 3,028 feet into the waters off Nonsuch Island — more than five times deeper than any diver had previously reached.

Ocean exploration: The bathysphere being lowered into the ocean in the 1930s and, in the
right-hand image, Dr William Beebe and Otis Barton can be seen looking out from the bathysphere

As he went down, he kept in telephone contact with the surface and described what he saw outside, describing a number of never before seen species. His descriptions and sketches were then put to paper by Ms Bostelmann.

While at the time some of the depictions were deemed fantastical, many of the drawings were found to be astonishingly accurate when the discovered fish were later photographed.

Several of her drawings were donated to the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo by Dr Beebe and have been displayed on the Island in the past, but according to the New York Daily News some of the work being put on display this week have been in archives for more than 70 years.

The exhibit, titled Drawn from the Depths will remain on display until at least Labour Day, but could potentially remain in place for the rest of the year.