Cyanotypes and Botanical Art: The Legacy of Anna Atkins

Anna Atkins, a 19th-century English botanist and photographer, is a leading figure in botanical art and photography. She created the first photographically illustrated book using the cyanotype technique to accurately document British seaweed. Through this innovation, she left a valuable scientific and artistic legacy.

Discovering Anna Atkins

Born in 1799 in Tonbridge, England, Anna Atkins, an only child and motherless, received a rigorous scientific education - rare for a woman of her time - thanks to her father, John George Children, a renowned scientist.

Trained in scientific drawing, in 1823 she illustrated her father's English translation of the History of Mollusks by the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck.

She married John Pelly Atkins in 1825. The couple had no children. Anna Atkins devoted herself to biology and began to compile a reference herbarium.

In 1839 she became a member of the London Botanical Society , one of the few learned societies open to women.

Thanks to the photographer William Henry Fox Talbot, she discovered the technique of photograms, one of the first photographic techniques without a view camera that the photographer called "photogenic drawing".

Photogram of William Henry Fox Talbot

Anna Atkins then turned away from graphic methods and became one of the first practitioners of photography on paper.

However, it was the discovery of the cyanotype, a process developed from 1842 by John Herschel, an English astronomer and scientist, that revolutionized his work. The cyanotype technique did not use silver salts as with WHF Talbot, but ferric salts.

The innovation of cyanotype

What is a cyanotype?
The cyanotype is a photographic image obtained without a camera. The specimen - object, plant - is placed on a sheet coated with a photosensitive solution. After exposure to the sun, the image fixed by washing with water then stands out in white on a Prussian blue background.

Between 1843 and 1853, Atkins published “Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions,” a series of volumes containing hundreds of cyanotypes of algae. This simple and inexpensive process allowed him to accurately capture the details of marine plants.

His monumental work represents not only a significant contribution to botany, but also a milestone in the history of photography. Each specimen is accompanied by detailed scientific notes, making this work a reference for botany lovers.

Although she was long overlooked, Anna Atkins is now celebrated for her cyanotypes, recognized as much for their scientific value as for their artistic aesthetic. The plant prints she created have become works of art in their own right, highly prized by collectors and botanical art enthusiasts.

Anna Atkins embodies the intersection of science and art. Her innovative use of emerging technology to advance botanical knowledge is a testament to her ingenuity and passion. As a pioneer, she paved the way for many women in science and the arts, and her legacy continues to inspire new generations of botany lovers.

To learn more about Anna Atkins' cyanotypes, explore the digital collections of libraries, such as those at the National Museum of Natural History , which hold many of her works. Her prints of flowers and algae remain masterpieces of botanical art.