User:Nora Lockshin/Adelia Sarah Gates

Adelia Sarah Gates (c.1820-25? - 1912) was an American illustrator of botanical specimens. Her early work was as a elementary teacher and decorative watercolorist. She was an amateur decorative watercolorist and painter long before she was able to advance further into scientific illustration methods and to travel widely on collecting and documentation expeditions later in her life.

Much of her youthful life was spent as a guardian, farmworker, teacher, and factory worker in the Lowell Mills before being able to attend college. Over 600 of her works were exhibited and donated to the U.S. National Museum, which later became the Smithsonian Institution. Many of her works can be seen at the Smithsonian Institution Archives by requesting Record Unit 7312, Adelia Gates Collection, 1879-1898 and undated.