Anna Atkins Explained

Birth Date:1799 3, df=yes
Birth Place:Tonbridge, Kent, England
Death Place:Halstead Place, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
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Known For:Very early botanical photographs, 1843 book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1st book illustrated with photographic images)
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Anna Atkins (; 16 March 1799 – 9 June 1871[1]) was an English botanist and photographer. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images.[2] [3] [4] Some sources say that she was the first woman to create a photograph.[3] [4] [5] [6]

Early life

Atkins was born in Tonbridge, Kent, England in 1799.[1] Her mother, Hester Anne Children, "didn't recover from the effects of childbirth" and died in 1800.[5] Anna was close to her father John George Children, a renowned chemist, mineralogist, and zoologist.[7] Anna "received an unusually scientific education for a woman of her time."[8] Her detailed engravings of shells were used to illustrate her father's translation of Lamarck's Genera of Shells.[8] [9]

In 1825, she married John Pelly Atkins, a London West India merchant, later sheriff, and proponent of railways; during this same year, she moved to Halstead Place, the Atkins family home in Halstead, near Sevenoaks, Kent.[8] [10] They had no children.[11] Atkins pursued her interests in botany by collecting dried plants, which were probably used as photograms later.[8] She was elected a member of the London Botanical Society in 1839.[12]

Photography

John George Children and John Pelly Atkins were friends of William Henry Fox Talbot.[8] Anna Atkins learned directly from Talbot about two of his inventions related to photography: the "photogenic drawing" technique (in which an object is placed on light-sensitized paper and exposed to the sun to produce an image) and calotypes.[13] [14]

Atkins was known to have had access to a camera by 1841.[8] Some sources say that Atkins was the first female photographer,[3] [4] [5] [6] [15] while others attribute this title to Constance Fox Talbot.[16] [17] [18] As no camera-based photographs by Anna Atkins,[8] nor photographs by Constance Talbot,[17] survive, the issue may never be resolved.

Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions

Sir John Herschel, a friend of Atkins and Children, invented the cyanotype photographic process in 1842.[1] Within a year, Atkins applied the process to algae (specifically, seaweed) by making cyanotype photograms that were contact printed[1] "by placing the unmounted dried-algae original directly on the cyanotype paper".[5]

Atkins self-published her photograms in the first installment of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions in October 1843.[2] She planned to provide illustrations to William Henry Harvey's A Manual of British Algae which had been published in 1841. Although privately published, with a limited number of copies, and with handwritten text, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions is considered the first book illustrated with photographic images.[2] [3] [4] [19]

Eight months later, in June 1844, the first fascicle of William Henry Fox Talbot's The Pencil of Nature was released; that book was the "first photographically illustrated book to be commercially published"[20] or "the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs".[21]

Atkins produced a total of three volumes of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions between 1843 and 1853.[22] Only 17 copies of the book are known to exist, in various states of completeness.[23] Copies are now held by the following institutions, among others:[5] [7]

One copy of the book with 411 plates in three volumes sold for £133,500 at auction in 1996.[7] [22] Another copy with 382 prints in two volumes which was owned by scientist Robert Hunt (1807–1887) sold for £229,250 at auction in 2004.[23]

In 2018, the New York Public Library opened an exhibition on Atkins' life and work, featuring various versions of Photographs of British Algae.[34] [35]

Later life and work

In addition to Photographs of British Algae, Atkins published five novels between 1852 and 1863.[36] [37] These included The Perils of Fashion, Murder will Out: a story of real life, and A Page from the Peerage.

In the 1850s, Atkins collaborated with Anne Dixon (1799–1864), who was "like a sister" to her, to produce at least three presentation albums of cyanotype photograms:

Atkins retained the algae, ferns and other plants that she used in her work and in 1865 donated the collection to the British Museum.[38]

She died at Halstead Place in 1871 of "paralysis, rheumatism, and exhaustion" at the age of 72.[5]

In popular culture

On 16 March 2015, Internet search engine Google commemorated Atkins's 216th birthday by placing a Google Doodle image of bluish leaf shapes on a darker background on its search page to represent her cyanoprint work.[39] [40]

Atkins' work was a major feature in the New Realities Photography in the Nineteenth Century exhibition held in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, June – September 2017.[41]

Publications

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Art encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Anna Atkins . Oxford University Press . 2002 . 10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T004852 . 978-1-884446-05-4 . 15 March 2019.
  2. Book: Parr . Martin . Gerry . Badger . Gerry Badger . The Photobook: a history . 1 . Phaidon . 2004 . London . 0-7148-4285-0.
  3. Book: James, Christopher . The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes . 2nd . Delmar Cengage Learning . 2009 . Clifton Park, NY . 978-1-4180-7372-5 . 11 August 2009 . registration .
  4. News: . Seeing is believing. 700 years of scientific and medical illustration. Photography. Cyanotype photograph. Anna Atkins (1799–1871). . 23 October 1999 . 11 August 2009.
  5. Book: Atkins . Anna . Larry J. . Schaaf . Hans P. Jr. . Kraus . Sun Gardens: Victorian photograms . Aperture . 1985 . New York . 0-89381-203-X .
  6. Book: Clarke, Graham . The Photograph . Oxford University Press . 1997 . Oxford . 0-19-284248-X . registration .
  7. Book: Ware, Mike . Cyanotype: the future, science and art of photographic printing in Prussian blue . National Museum of Photography, Film & Television . 1999 .
  8. Web site: Halstead Parish Council . Parish history: Anna Atkins . 11 August 2009.
  9. Web site: . Historic figures. Anna Atkins (1799–1871) . https://web.archive.org/web/20051222071833/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/atkins_anna.shtml . 22 December 2005 . 11 August 2009.
  10. Schaaf. Larry. 1979. The First Photographically Printed and Illustrated Book. The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 73. 2. 212. 10.1086/pbsa.73.2.24302456. 24302456. 183441263. 0006-128X.
  11. Web site: John Pelly Atkins. Legacies of British Slave-Ownership. University College London. 16 March 2015.
  12. Book: Hannavy, John. Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. 16 December 2013. Routledge. 978-1-135-87327-1. en.
  13. Web site: Ocean flowers: Anna Atkins's cyanotypes of British algae . New York Public Library Digital Gallery . 11 August 2009 .
  14. Book: Roger Taylor. Impressed by the Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840–1860. NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2007. 287.
  15. News: Laura . Cumming . Things aren't what they seem. The V&A's exhibition of its vast photo archive shows how the camera can transform even the humblest object . The Observer . 10 March 2002 . 13 August 2009 .
  16. News: Glauber. Carole. Book review. Seizing the light: a history of photography. F2 eZine. April–June 2001. 11 August 2009 .
  17. Web site: Smith . Vivienne . Talbot, Constance: Woman at forefront of photography . Derby Evening Telegraph . 11 August 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081204154339/http://bygonederbyshire.co.uk/articles/Talbot%2C_Constance:_Woman_at_forefront_of_photography . 4 December 2008 .
  18. Book: Gover, C Jane . The positive image: women photographers in turn of the century America . 1988 . State University of New York Press . Albany . 0-88706-533-3 . 6 . 11 August 2009 .
  19. Book: Peres, Michael R. . The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography: Digital Imaging, Theory and Applications, History, and Science . 4th . Elsevier/Focal Press . 2007 . Amsterdam and Boston . 978-0-240-80740-9.
  20. Web site: Glasgow University Library . Special Collections Department . Book of the month. William Henry Fox Talbot. The Pencil of Nature . February 2007 . 11 August 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110611071313/https://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/Feb2007.html . 11 June 2011 .
  21. Web site: William Henry Fox Talbot: The Pencil of Nature (1994.197.1-.6) . Timeline of Art History . New York . Metropolitan Museum of Art . October 2006 . 11 August 2009.
  22. News: Rare book by woman pioneer goes to auction . The Guardian (London) . 19 June 1996.
  23. Web site: Anna Atkins (1799–1871), Photographs of British Algæ. Cyanotype Impressions., Robert Hunt's copy . 19 May 2004 . Christie's Inc . 13 August 2009.
  24. Web site: Catalogue of photographically illustrated books. Atkins, Anna. Photographs of British algae. Cyanotype impressions. . British Library . 11 August 2009.
  25. News: Benjamin . Genocchio . Art review; Where art and botany coupled, photography evolved . New York Times . 4 July 2004. 11 August 2009.
  26. Web site: Works of art. Photographs. Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions . Metropolitan Museum of Art . 11 August 2009.
  27. Web site: Catalog entry for Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions . New York Public Library . 11 August 2009.
  28. Web site: NYPL digital gallery. Browse source titles. Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions . https://web.archive.org/web/20080611063317/http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital_dev/dgtitle_tree.cfm?level=1&title_id=100174 . 11 June 2008 . New York Public Library . 11 August 2009 .
  29. Web site: Still life . Royal Society . 11 August 2009.
  30. Web site: Catalog entry for Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions . The Linnean Society of London . 18 January 2014.
  31. Web site: Anna Atkins & Algae: Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. . Horniman Museum and Gardens . 26 February 2020 . 26 February 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200226183336/https://horniman.ac.uk/collections/stories/anna-atkins-algae .
  32. Web site: Rijksmuseum acquires PHOTO Book by First Female Photographer . Rijksmuseum . 14 May 2018 . 26 July 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200726045402/https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/press/press-releases/rijksmuseum-acquires-photo-book-by-first-female-photographer .
  33. Web site: Photographs of British algae: cyanotype impressions . Université de Montréal Library . Université de Montréal . 2 March 2019.
  34. Web site: Blue Prints: The Pioneering Photographs of Anna Atkins . New York Public Library . 2 March 2019.
  35. News: Farago . Jason . She Needed No Camera to Make the First Book of Photographs . 2 March 2019 . New York Times . 15 November 2018.
  36. Web site: Atkins, Anna. Boase. Frederic. Frederic Boase. 1908. Modern English biography. Volume IV. Netherton and Worth. Truro, England. 11 August 2009.
  37. Web site: New general catalog of old books and authors. Author names starting with At. 11 August 2009.
  38. News: Moorhead. Joanna. Blooming marvellous: the world's first female photographer – and her botanical beauties. 24 June 2017. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. 23 June 2017.
  39. News: Anna Atkins: Google Doodle celebrates 216th birthday of botanist who produced first photographic book . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/anna-atkins-google-doodle-celebrates-216th-birthday-of-botanist-who-produced-first-photographic-book-10109935.html . 7 May 2022 . subscription . live. 16 March 2015 . 16 March 2015 . Independent Digital News and Media Ltd . The Independent . London.
  40. Web site: Anna Atkins' 216th Birthday . Google Doodle Archive . 2 March 2019.
  41. Web site: New Realities. Photography in the Nineteenth Century. 24 June 2017.

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