Cheilanthes Microphylla (Jamaica), c. 1850

Anna Atkins was a British botanist and photographer. She received a scientific education from her father, a respected scientist which was a rarity for women at the time and learned photography from her friend William Fox Talbot and the cyanotype technique from its inventor, Sir John Herschel. Each image is unique and was made by placing a dried plant specimen directly on that light-sensitive paper and exposing it to the sun. Atkins published the first book to be illustrated by photographic images, titled Photographs of British Algae (1843) which paved the way for photographs to be used in scientific illustrations in books. Offered here is a stunning example from a group of five unique photograms cyanotypes Atkins gave to her closest childhood friend and collaborator, Anne Dixon in 1854, all on original mounts. Atkins and Dixon collaborated on three presentation albums of cyanotypes together, Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns (1853) and Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns (1854), and an album inscribed to "Captain Henry Dixon" Anne Dixon's nephew. Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns (1853) may be found in the collection of the J.P. Getty Museum and disassembled pages of Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns (1854) may be found in various museums and individual collections worldwide.