The eastern spadefoot (formerly Scaphiopus solitarius) is a toad that lives most of its life underground and only comes out at night. This posed a problem in the early years of North American herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles), as specimens would have to be captured and illustrated by hand.

However, J. Sera, one of the first published illustrators of the eastern spadefoot, was able to portray this elusive toad with a distinctive expressiveness that makes this toad an endearing subject. This illustration was published as a hand-colored lithograph in North American herpetology by John Edwards Holbrook (1836).