Anna Atkins was the daughter of John
George Children who a scientist where he specialized in several science fields
such as biology, mineralogy, mechanics and even astronomy. Anna was born in
1799 in Tonbridge, she was brought up by her father John George as her mother
died during childbirth, she knew William Fox Talbot and even William Herschel
as they were both big friends of her father. Anna Atkins interest in
photography came up after Talbot had sent a letter to her father about his
achievements and she immediately took much interest, making her one of the
first women to be involved in photography although not the first one.
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| Portrait of Anna Atkins |
Since
Anna was a botanist she saw photography as a very good and efficient method to
produce scientific illustrations. William Harvey produced a manual named (A Manual of the British Marine Alge) in
1841, however this was without any illustrations, so Anna published a manual
named (British Algae: Cyanotype
Impressions) where she used the Cyanotype method to produce photograms
which where directly referred as a guide to identify the marine alge type in
Willaim Harvey’s manual, this rendered her the first persons to use
illustrations in books. A series of issues were published and a total amount of
400 copies for each issue were produced, some of them are still preserved till
this day in a very small amount.
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A photo from her botany collection
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Thanks
to the very stable properties of the Cyanotype prints many of Anna Atkins work
in prints is still in top condition to our days.
Anna Atkins. [online]
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