Anna Atkins (1799-1871) was a pioneer in the fields of photography and botany. She was the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographs and her innovation demonstrated the novel ways science and art could intersect.
Anna Atkins (1799-1871) was a pioneer in the fields of photography and botany. She was the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographs and her innovation demonstrated the novel ways science and art could intersect.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting visionaries.
Today, we’re talking about a woman who was a pioneer in the fields of photography and botany. She was the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographs - and her innovation demonstrated the novel ways science and art could intersect.
Here’s a snapshot of Anna Atkins.
Anna was born in Kent, England in 1799. Her father was John George Children, a well-respected scientist who worked at the British Museum. He was also the very first president of the Royal Entomological Society in London.
Because of her father, Anna grew up immersed in scientific thought and regularly interacted with people in the scientific community.
In the early 1820’s, Anna began to work regularly alongside her father. When her father published an English translation of Jean Baptiste de Lamarck catalogue of shells, Anna was the one who did the illustrations - creating more than 200 scientifically accurate drawings of shells included in the book.
In the 1830’s, Anna turned to botany as a way to further her scientific interests. At the time, botany was a thriving scientific field, and many scientists were committed to cataloging plant life. Anna began to curate her own collection of preserved plants. She gave some of her specimens to botanists at Kew Gardens, a renowned botanical garden in London.
Anna also struck up a regular correspondence with William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of the photographic process. In 1841, she received a camera of her own.
That same year, Anna read the botanist William H. Harvey’s book the ‘Manual of British Algae’. Anna thought that the book was majorly lacking in it’s illustrations. She wanted to create a catalog that included realistic depictions of algae.
So she turned to cyanotypes. Cyanotypes are a type of photographic print. Anna learned how to make them from Sir John Herschel - the method’s inventor.
To make a cyanotype, first Anna would take a piece of paper and coat it in a mixture of chemicals. Then, she would place a piece of algae onto the paper, and put the paper and algae in sunlight. The natural UV light of the sun, combined with the chemicals coating the paper, caused the paper around the algae to change color. Finally, Anna would remove the paper from sunlight and rinse it in water.
The result was a stunning photographic print - a delicate, detailed outline of algae in white, set against a bright, cyan blue background. Every detail of the plant could be seen - from the complex interlocking root hairs at the bottom of the plant to the large, spread-out leaves at the top. And at the bottom of every cyanotype, Anna handwrote the precise, scientific name of the algae depicted.
In 1843 Anna published the first copy of her book ‘Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions’ - the first book ever published to be illustrated with photographic images. Anna’s book was entirely handmade. Over the next ten years, she produced 16 more handmade copies, each a little bit different from the last.
Anna died in 1871, at the age of 72. After her death, her work was largely overlooked by the scientific community. Then, in 1888, William Lang Jr, a Scottish book collector, found Anna’s book and began exhibiting it at public lectures.
Near the end of his life, William sold a large portion of his library, and Anna’s work was almost lost to the world.
Then, in the 1970’s, the historian Larry Schaaf unearthed Anna’s book, and republished her illustrations in a photobook called ‘Sun Gardens’. More than a hundred years after the publication of her first book, Anna was finally lauded in artistic and scientific communities as a pioneer in the field of photographic illustration.
Anna’s work has far outlived her, and has gained a wider audience - her cyanotypes have been exhibited in a range of museums.
All month, we’re honoring incredible, artistic visionaries.
For more information and pictures of some of the work we’re talking about, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. And another special thanks to Alesandra Tejeda who curated this month’s theme.
As always, we’ll be taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday!