Anna Atkins’ Cyanotypes: Botanical Sun Photographs

Anna Atkins’ cyanotypes artfully blend the worlds of botany and photography. Creating a collection of Prussian blue impressions that would establish her as a catalytic force in both fields, Atkins is considered the first female photographer, and the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images.

The volume, Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns, was her second publication after the landmark tome Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions was published in 1853. Created in collaboration with her close friend, Anne Dixon (1799–1864), this lesser-known work applies Atkins’ trademark cyanotype impressions to the delicate specimens of British and foreign ferns in a graceful celebration of science and art.

Who was anna atkins?

Born in Tonbridge, Kent, in 1799, Anna Atkins was left an only child under her father’s care when her mother died shortly after giving birth. Her father, John George Children (1777-1852), was a well-regarded scientist specialising in chemistry, mineralogy, and zoology. He was an acting member of the Royal Society and British Museum, and it was through his network of scientific acquaintances that Atkins was exposed to a world kept separate from most women of the time.

At the turn of the century, only certain hobbies were deemed acceptable for women due to their gentile nature. Along with painting, sewing, and housekeeping, botany was popular due to its association with flowers and femininity. Boasting an unusually scientific education under the direction of her father and his friends, Atkins developed a passion for botany, collecting and studying specimens for her collection. In 1825 she married John Pelly Atkins (d. 1872), a merchant of India and railway promoter, which gave her the time and means to dedicate to her botanical interests. On her travels and through those of her friends, she collected rare specimens from around the world for her studies.

Corresponding mostly through her father, she learnt much of her botanical knowledge through his friend and colleague Sir William Hooker (1785-1865), an established botanist and director of Kew Gardens. In a letter to Hooker on behalf of his daughter, Children states: ‘I am only the channel of communication. [Atkins] considers you as her tutor in botany, as what little knowledge she possesses in the science has been chiefly derived from your works.’

Atkins’ first foray into capturing botanical specimens followed the traditional method of recording by hand through drawing or painting, as she produced illustrations for her father’s translation of Lamarck’s Genera of Shells in 1823. Predating the advent of photography, authors relied on lengthy descriptions of specimens in their works to envisage their subjects and often pasted in hand-made illustrations and sketches or dried examples of specimens themselves, none of which provided comprehensive examples for their studies.

Atkins changed the face of scientific documentation when she produced her vibrantly blue volumes of cyanotypes that constitute Photographs of British Algae. Her landmark publications are regarded as the first books illustrated with photographic illustrations, utilising the newest technology to create something never before seen in the publishing world.

The Cyanotype and Early Photography Techniques

By 1839, the discovery of photography had been introduced in Britain by William Henry Fox Talbot – another close acquaintance of Atkins’ father. It was through this connection that the pair learnt first-hand about Talbot’s new photographic inventions. These included the photogenic drawing technique, where an object is placed on light-sensitised paper and uses the light from the sun to produce an image, and calotypes, a photographic method that uses paper coated with silver iodide that darkens when exposed to the light, creating an image in relief. Passages in Talbot’s journals reveal that he sent Atkins and her father his first memoir on photography along with some of his first photographic prints. This early access to the methodology of photographs allowed the pair time to practise and experiment with techniques, and Atkins’ father provided her with one of the earliest cameras.

The photographic process that would become Atkins’ signature, the cyanotype, was developed by scientist and close family friend John Herschel in 1842 as an independent experiment on Talbot’s earlier methods. The process began by mixing two iron-based compounds, ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, brushing the mixture over the paper’s surface and leaving it in the dark to dry. The object to be photographed was then placed on the surface of the treated paper under a glass plate and exposed to sunlight for several minutes before the paper was washed with clean water and left to dry. A chemical reaction between the iron compounds, sunlight, and water, resulted in a brilliant pigment that revealed a Prussian blue negative of the object printed onto the page. This method established by Herschel later became widely known as the ‘blueprint’ after it was adapted by the construction industry as a way to reproduce architectural drawings.

Herschel published details of his new technique in the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions publication, yet the specific chemical measurements of his method still needed to be specified. There were manuals and recipes to produce cyanotypes, but only some early photographers were successful in their attempts, with many unable to get the mix of chemicals right. Luckily for Atkins, through her close relationship with Herschel, she was able to learn the technique first-hand and reproduce it perfectly.

Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions

In October 1843, Atkins published her first instalment of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions with the illustrations intended to accompany William Henry Harvey’s Manual of British Algae, published two years previous. She believed the appearance of the plants boasted scientific and aesthetic importance to their study and endeavoured to catalogue and classify the different types of algae in the guide. She continued to collect her specimens and produce cyanotype impressions, creating three volumes of British Algae between 1843 and 1853. It was a highly ambitious project, with the creative documentation of her botanical subjects taking over a decade to complete. She writes in the introduction to her first work:

‘The difficulty of making accurate drawings of objects so minute has induced me to avail myself of Sir John Herschel’s beautiful proofs of cyanotype, to obtain impressions of the plants themselves which I have much pleasure in offering to my botanical friends. I hope that, in general, the impressions will be found sharp and well-defined.’

Volumes of her impressions were sent to various institutions such as the Royal Society and the British Museum, as well as contemporaries within her scientific network. Henry Fox Talbot, John Herschel, and Sir William Hooker received an early volume of the work, with each recipient responsible for organising and binding their own copy. Under 20 copies of Photographs of British Algae exist today, each unique in its order and number of prints due to the nature of the early publication.

Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns

In the summer of 1853, Atkins, accompanied by her close childhood friend Anne Dixon, produced a second collection of blueprints entitled Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns. While little is known about Atkins’ personal life and even less about her friend Dixon, it is believed that in the wake of her father’s death earlier that year, Dixon accompanied Atkins for a lengthy summer stay at her home in Kent. During their time together, the pair produced a volume of prints dedicated to Dixon’s nephew, Henry Dixon (1798–1851), who shared their enthusiasm for botany.

Like the sprawling fronds of her algae impressions, Atkins arranged her fern specimens in an equally romantic style. The intricate details of each captured in the delicate images unfurl the magic of many common British ferns. However, the pair did not confine themselves to Atkins’ specimen collection, using their well-connected scientific circles and her husband’s travels abroad to pool samples from around the world.

Their stunning colour aside, the unique outcome of each of the cyanotype prints lies in the personal touch of the hand that made them. Mixing the chemicals and applying the solution by brush to each piece of paper, the washes of Prussian blue ebb differently on each sheet. This, combined with the unpredictability of the chemical reaction with the water as they dry and the individual touches that play a part in the systematic action of creating the prints, allow for a collection of impressions each as unique as the next. Tiny white holes can be found in the corners of the images, where we can assume that Atkins pinned them up to dry. From the drip marks left by the water as it has run off the wet page in the drying process to the lighter circular smudge marks that appear when a fingertip has touched the chemical wash on the paper’s surface, Atkins left her mark on each and every page of her ambitious project, with her care and dedication to the process fundamentally apparent.

Each plant appears as if floating in water, the deep hue of the Prussian blue background provides an infinite depth in contrast to the delicate white details of each specimen. While they are impressions of static objects, the specimens hold an airy presence, their tendrils appearing in constant motion across the pages. The collection of cyanotypes forms an immersive exploration of the ferns under inspection through each specimen’s tentative and artistic arrangement.

As one of the first people to marry the worlds of science and photography, she saw the importance of capturing the beauty of plants in a way that only the cyanotype process offered at the time. Atkins was a pioneer of a new photographic process. She developed a unique style of reproducing imagery, resulting in a landmark publication in book publishing and scientific illustration.

Unlike her Photographs of British Algae, only two copies of Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns were produced of the same content and format— one for Dixon’s nephew and another which now resides in the National Science Museum in Bradford. Through an inscription in the front of Henry Dixon’s copy, we know that his volume was passed on to one of his nieces, Miss Wedderburn, who then gifted it to the Paris Lodge of the Girl’s Friendly Society in the early 1900s. After the society closed its Paris branch in 1939, the volume made its way to the open market before being sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1984.

Anna Atkins' Sun Prints

In the 150 years since her death, Anna Atkins’ unique work has only recently gained the recognition it deserves. Despite creating a seminal publication in the worlds of both science and photography, little is known about the life of Atkins, as it seemed that she communicated primarily through her father. She died at her home in Kent in 1871, at the age of 72. While her beautiful compendium of algae was somewhat recognised around its time of publication, the volumes eventually fell through the cracks of history. They remained practically forgotten until the following century.

The last few decades have seen celebrations of her blueprints at cornerstone institutions, with the New York Public Library hosting dual exhibitions to honour her historical achievements in photography and scientific documentation. While Atkins initially presented her volumes as objects of botanical observation, they have become dynamic examples of early experimental photography.

Atkins’ contributions to art and science, not to mention publishing and technology, are now receiving the recognition they deserve. This facsimile edition of Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns captures the delicate magic of her vibrant botanical studies, taking care to reproduce the Victorian cyanotypes in their original state as a true celebration of this often-forgotten work.

Anna Atkins' Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns

“The difficulty of making accurate drawings of objects so minute… has induced me to avail myself of Sir John Heschel’s beautiful proofs of cyanotype, to obtain impressions of the plants themselves, which I have much pleasure in offering to my botanical friends.”–Anna Atkins, 1843

“If the photograph in its early and imperfect scientific state was more consonant to our feelings for art, it is because… it was more true to our experience of Nature. Mere broad light and shade, with the correctness of general forms and absence of all convention, which are the beautiful conditions of photography… give artistic pleasure of a very high kind.”–Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, 1857