Robinia pseudo-acacia (America)

Anna Atkins, artist

1799–1871

Robinia pseudo-acacia (America), circa 1851–1854

Portfolio/Series title: Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns

Where object was made: England, United Kingdom

Material/technique: cyanotype; photogram

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 347 x 237 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 13 11/16 x 9 5/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 25 x 20 in

Credit line: Museum purchase

Accession number: 1997.0033

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Spencer Museum of Art Highlights

One of the medium's first female practitioners (in 1851 photography was barely ten years old), Anna Atkins learned the skills of photography from William Henry Fox Talbot and Sir John Herschel, two of its inventors and friends of her father, a curator at the newly founded British Museum.

This photograph is a photogram. To make it, Atkins placed a sample of algae on cyanotype paper, a light-sensitive blue paper commonly used for blueprints, and exposed it to sunlight to record an impression of the object. She distributed this work between 1851 and 1854 as part of her British Algae Cyanotype Impressions, the first book illustrated with photographs.

Big Botany: Conversations with the Plant World

This photogram originates from one of the earliest books to rely entirely on a photographic process: Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns (1854). The author and photographer of this book, Anna Atkins, is among the first women photographers. Atkins produced thousands of images during her remarkable career. English mathematician, astronomer, and chemist Sir John Herschel first discovered the cyanotype process, which is similar to the blueprint process, in 1842. The process’s most notable features include the resulting image’s vibrant color and relative durability.

This photogram, which shows a sample of a Black Locust branch, comes from a rare presentation album, known in only one copy, which Atkins created as a gift for her childhood friend Anne Dixon in 1854. Dixon, a fellow botanist, likely helped with the production of the album as she was staying with Atkins following the death of Atkins’s father. According to science historian Ann B. Shteir, Victorian society encouraged women to develop an interest in botany because plants were seen as suitably delicate, elegant, and beautiful.

Google Art Project

Exhibition Label:
"Art for Kansas: Building the Collection, 1988-1998 (Recent Acquisitions)," Nov-1998, John Pultz and Susan Earle
This photograph by Anna Atkins is an important addition to the Museum's holdings of works by ninetenth-century European photographers and by women. One of the medium's first female practitioners (in 1851 photography was barely tenyears old), Atkins learned the skills of photography from William Henry Fox Talbot and Sir John Herschel, two of its inventors and friends of her father, a curator at the newly founded British Museum.
This photograph is a photogram. To make it, Atkins placed a sample of algae on cyanotype paper, a light-sensitive blue paper commonly used for blueprints, and exposed it to sunlight to record an impression of the object. She distributed this work between 1851 and 1854 as part of her British Algae Cyanotype Impressions, the first book illustrated with photographs.

Archive Label 2003:
Anna Atkins made an early significant contribution to photography with the publication of the first book illustrated with photographs, British Algae Cyanotype Impressions. She learned photography from William Henry Fox Talbot and Sir John Herschel, two of its inventors and friends of her father, a curator at the newly founded British Museum. This photograph is a photogram that was included in her book. To make it, Atkins placed a sample of algae on cyanotype paper (light-sensitive blue paper commonly used for blueprints) and exposed it to sunlight to record an impression of the algae. The resulting image is simple and at the same time is biologically accurate.

Exhibition Label:
"Summer in the Central Court," Jun-2006, Kate Meyer
Blooming flowers, overhanging leaves, and fresh garden produce all suggest the beautiful abundance of summer. In her Sunflower quilt, Christina Hays Malcom transformed the complex head of a sunflower-a profusion of seeds and petals-into a familiar pattern of pieced cotton circles and a radiating burst of yellow color. A Currier and Ives lithograph showcases the typical yield of a summer garden, while the symmetry of a specific leaf from a locust tree might be preserved in the form of a cyanotype. Rose Kretsinger’s Paradise Garden quilt forms a gigantic bouquet from brightly colored floral designs. Linda Samson Talleur and Denise Low examine not only the recognizable pattern of Flower Garden quilts but also the communal process of their construction as quilters use small hexagonal pieces to create a “flower.” In these natural forms, artists capture seasonal beauty through timeless patterns.