Anna Atkins

English (1799–1871)
Lastrea Spinulosa, 1851–54
Cyanotype
Museum purchase, Horace W. Goldsmith and Art Purchase Funds     92.34

Anna Atkins, whom many consider to be the first female photographer, was trained as a botanist by her father, scientist John George Children.  She documented plant life in drawings, etchings, and paintings until she learned about photography.  Personal interaction with photographic trailblazers William Henry Fox Talbot and Sir John Herschel reinforced her interest.  She owned a camera, but preferred and perfected a cameraless process that Herschel invented in 1842.  Cyanotypes use iron salts to sensitize paper to light.  The object to be reproduced is placed directly on the paper and exposed to light, producing a cyan-blue color where light strikes the paper.  In 1843 Atkins self-published Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, which marked the first use of photographic images in publishing and established photography as an accurate medium for scientific investigation.