User:MikeLon11/sandbox

Anna Atkins was an English botanist and photographer. She was born on March 16, 1799, in Tunbridge, Kent, England. She passed on June 9, 1871. She was raised by her father and her mother passed shortly after she was born. She is celebrated today as one of the first female photographers. She came up at the time when photography just started to become popular. She is best known for her pioneer and work with the use of a cyanotype. This was an early photographic process that produced blueprints. Growing up, she received a scientific education from her father and had access to his library. Her father John was a chemist, man, neurologist, and zoologist. John was a very well-respected scientist and the first president of the Royal Entomological Society of London. Through her father‘s connections, Adkins became familiar with photography quickly. Her detailed engraving of shells were used to represent her father’s translation of Lamark’s Genera of Shells.

In 1825, she married a man named John Pelli Atkins, but they did not have children. This couple was close with William Henry Fox Talbot which is who invented the photographic process. Anna then received a camera in 1841. She was known as the first person to publish a book with photography in it. She put this out with a limited number of copies, two more volumes were produced between 1843 and 1853. In the volumes held at the museum, there are 411 plates each with their scientific names written by Anna. The way she did this was she placed botanical specimens directly onto a coated paper and exposed them to light, this would create detailed blue and white images. Her work influenced a lot of photographers throughout the years. Her contributions to the world of photography remain known and will never be forgotten. As many say, her work bridges the gap between science and art.