- Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins (née Children) (1799-1871) was an English
botanist ,photographer , and the first person to publish a book illustrated exclusively withphotograph ic images. [cite news | last =The New York Public Library| first =| coauthors=| title =Seeing is Believing| pages =| publisher =| date =| url =http://seeing.nypl.org/235bt.html| accessdate =2006-12-23 .]Early life
Anna Atkins was born in
Tonbridge ,Kent , and her mother died in childbirth. [cite news | last =Marshall| first =Peter| coauthors=| title =The Pencil of Nature| pages =| publisher =About.com| date =| url =http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa060302b.htm| accessdate =2006-12-23 .] Her father,John George Children , was a scientist of many interests who was honored by having the mineralchildrenite and the Children's python, "Antaresia childreni ", named after him. He chaired theRoyal Society meeting at whichWilliam Henry Fox Talbot first disclosed the workings ofphotogenic drawing , and Atkins and her father received their first lessons about calotypes directly from Talbot. [cite book|author=Roger Taylor|title=Impressed by the Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860|publisher=NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art|date=2007|page=287]Photography
Sir
John Herschel , a friend of Atkins and her father, invented thecyanotype photographic process in 1842. Within a year, Atkins applied the process to solve the difficulties of making accurate drawings of scientific specimens and self-published the first installment of "British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions". Only about twelve copies of the book were made, one of which is held in theNational Media Museum inBradford ,England . She continued to publish other installments of the "British Algae" series, and also to make other books like "Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns" (1854). She made a book usingcyanotypes and had it published.References
External links
* [http://seeing.nypl.org/235bt.html New York Public Library]
* [http://www.photograms.org/chapter02.html Anna Atkins Cyanotype Photogenic Drawings and Photograms]
* cite web |publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum
url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/photographerframe.php?photographerid=ph005
title= Anna Atkins
work=Photography
accessdate= 2007-11-11
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