Isabel Adams (bapt. 13 October 1853 – 1937), known as H. Isabel Adams, was an English artist, scientific illustrator, and author. She is most known for her botanical drawings, bookplates, and published volume of books, Wild Flowers of the British Isles (1907).
Adams was born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire,[1] [2] to Charles Edmonds Adams and Sophia Barnby.[3] She may have attended the Birmingham School of Art in England, and trained as an artist before later moving to illustration and specializing in the Arts and Crafts style.[4]
Beginning in 1906, Adams became a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, accredited with being the oldest biological society in the world, and later a member of the Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles.[5] [6] [7]
Shortly after, the first volume of her book, Wild Flowers of the British Isles, was published in 1907, followed with the second volume in 1910.[8] [9] Accompanied by her botanical illustrations was an in-depth guide to every wildflower found in the British Isles. This volume of books became the highlight of her career and remains one of Adams' best known works.
She died in Camberwell, London, in 1937, aged 83.[10]
Listed below are notable reviews and honorable mentions of Adams' work:
"Her book does not compete, of course, with Bentham or Hooker's hand- books; but it is sufficiently scientific to enable serious botanists to recommend it to beginners. There are some eighty full-page plates in this quarto volume. We have seen few flower drawings (always excepting Curtis's Flora Londinensis) that have given us so much pleasure to look at. From one to half-a-dozen plants are figured on a page ; but Miss Adams manages to keep the character of each species distinct, and the grouping is often full of skill and grace. We have nothing but praise for the colouring, especially the various greens. The yellow of the rock-rose is beautiful, and the more subdued mauves and pinks are excellent. It is all slightly conventional, but gives a truer effect than many an attempt at realism. The stalks are sometimes drawn too thick. For instance, in Limon eathartiewm the pedicels should be the merest threads. We regret that, though there is a description of every species in all the orders that are dealt with, only about a third are represented in the plates."
"Enough has been said to show that this book cannot rank as a valuable contribution to the science of botany, and it is all the more to be regretted when the excellence of the drawings is considered. Although in some of the plates there is unnecessary crowding, yet the draughtsmanship throughout is of a high order, and the plates of Convolvulus and Tamus communis, to mention two only, are beautiful works of art. A complete series of plant pictures of our British flora by Mrs. Adams would be of considerable value, and it is a matter for regret that so much skill and labour should have been expended on a book so pretentious and incomplete, which, with all its accuracy of drawing, unfortunately can only be regarded as a work for the drawing-room table."