A Look at the British Scientist Whose Use of Cyanotypes in Botanical Books Was a First

A look at the British scientist whose use of cyanotypes in botanical books was a first for scientific publishing, and for photography

JONATHAN GIBBS- Monday 16 March 2015

Today marks the birthday of Anna Atkins, a British botanist whose use of cyanotypes - or 'sunprints' - of plants and algae in botanical studies paved the way for the use of photography in scientific publishing.

Now versions of her beautiful photographic images are being used as a Google doodle to celebrate the 216th anniversary of her birth, in 1799. The delicate leaves used to spell out the name of the search engine are slate blue against a darker blue background. This is due to the cyanotype process, which involves the exposure of a mix of ammonium iron citrate and potassium ferricyanide to ultraviolet light, leaving the paper so-called Prussian blue.

In fact, the word 'blueprint' comes from the same process, which had previously been used to reproduce architectural drawings and designs. Atkins' claim to fame rests on her realisation that the photographic process could be used to give accurate and detailed botanical images, thus advancing the possibility of scientific illustration. She did this by placing leaves directly on the paper for the length of the exposure, which makes these, strictly speaking, photograms, rather than photographs.

However, Atkins' first book using the technique didn't show leaves such as those we see in today's Google Doodle. Instead this wasPhotographs of British Algae, in 1843, a privately published collection with handwritten captions to the individually produced cyanotypes. It was her mentor - and the inventor of the cyanotype process - English astronomer Sir John Herschel, who produced the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs,The Pencil of Nature, in 1844.

Atkins was born in Tonbridge in Kent and received an unusually scientific education for a woman of her time, following in the footsteps of her father, John George Children. Long before her experiments with cyanotypes, her engravings of shells were used to illustrate her father's translation of a book on the subject.

After her book on algae, she collaborated with Anne Dixon on at least two more botanical books,Cyanotypes of British and Foreign FernsandCyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns. Because they were produced in such small numbers, her books are very rare, and have fetched up to £229,000 at auction.

Anna Atkins published the first book with photographs. Here are a few ofthem.

Updated byPhil Edwardson March 16, 2015, 6:30 a.m. ET@PhilEdwardsInc

Anna Atkins is best known for her haunting photographs of an unlikely subject: British algae. With her work she changed botany and photography, and managed to make a piece of art that still moves viewers today.

Today (March 16th) is Anna Atkins' 216th birthday (and the reason she's celebrated with aGoogle Doodle). It's a good time to remember how she brought together two unique passions to create a lasting record.

Atkins was an insider stuck on science's edge. She saw a new photographic technique as a tool.

Born in 1799, Atkins had a remarkably scientific childhood as the daughter ofJohn Children(he was the type of eminencewho had a butterfly named after him). Anna quickly found herself a part of her father's scientific circle, as well as an active contributor to his work —she illustratedhis translation ofJean-Baptiste Lamarck'sGenera of Shells. She developed a passion for the sciences even though, at the time, she was relegated to amateur status due to restrictions on women in the scientific fields.

As recalled inThe Philosophical Breakfast Club, Atkins' scientific background led to her correspondence withWilliam Henry Fox Talbot, a photographic pioneer (which, in the 1840s, was almost anybody who knew what a photograph was). She also struck up an equally important friendship withSir John Herschel, who invented something called thecyanotypein 1842.

Early photographers struggled with a problem: they couldn't easily develop their pictures because the existing techniques were slow, expensive, and required dangerous chemicals. Herschel came up with a solution: using an iron pigment called "Prussian blue," he laid objects or photographic negatives onto chemically treated paper, exposed them to sunlight for around 15 minutes, and then washed the paper. The remaining image revealed pale blue objects on a dark blue background. This was a cyanotype — a new way to print photographs permanently.

Herschel primarily used cyanotypes to copy notes, but when Atkins heard about the technique, she leapt at it. Though she'd shown herself to be a capable artist, she realized instantly that cyanotypes were a better way to capture the intricacies of plant life and avoid the tedium — and error — involved with drawing. As important, her passion for botany allowed her to see a new application of the exciting technology.

So in 1843, she began making a photographic book of algae.

Anna Atkins made history — and cyanotypes that are still around today

Atkins'British Algaewas the definition of a labor of love. Published piecemeal over a decade, from the 1840s to the 1850s, the book was made at home using her own materials. From what we know, Atkins collected the algae with the help of her friendAnne Dixonand dried and pressed it, the same way you might press flowers. Then she identified it using William Harvey'sManual of British Algae. Finally, she made the cyanotype by laying each piece upon the paper. (That's why, technically, her pictures are calledphotograms, not photographs, because they didn't use a camera.) The book's text appears in her elegant cursive.

She eagerly introduced the volume by crediting its technology:

The difficulty of making accurate drawings of objects as minute as many of the Algae and Conferae, has induced me to avail myself of Sir John Herschel’s beautiful process of Cyanotype, to obtain impressions of the plants themselves.

Atkins may have been helped by her father and access to his lab (she dedicated the book to him). But even though she had access to equipment others might not have had, her innovation was to pair two passions and create a record that endures today.

The book wasn't a profit-making enterprise for Atkins, but it was an important one. It stands as the first book illustrated with photographs, and it brought together photography and botany for the first time. Atkins took the most fleeting and unusual of subjects — British algae — and made it timeless.