| Object: | “Cyanotypes” by Anna Atkins and Anne Dixon |
| Date: | 1845–1861 |
| Medium: | Cyanotypes |
| Where to find: | Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library |
What to know: Botanist Anna Atkins (1799-1871) documented hundreds of plants using cyanotype, a photographic method that, by exposing paper coated with a solution of iron salts to light, creates images of ghostly relief against a field of Prussian blue. This page — delicately illuminating the common poppy, or papaver rhoeas — comes from an unpublished album of 74 cyanotypes Atkins created with her childhood friend Anne Dixon (1799-1864). The album turns a variety of objects such as lace, algae, and peacock feathers into ethereal photograms that blend scientific illustration with artistic exploration.
From an expert: “When Atkins and Dixon were creating these cyanotypes, the technology was new, and no camera was necessary,” says Shannon K. Supple, a curator in Yale Library Special Collections. “Cyanotypes allow for thoughtful captures of shape and density, but not necessarily color and texture. The assemblage of simplified shapes is the gentlest riot, offering us a space for contemplation and possibility. In the case of the papaver rhoeas, the lack of bright red in the petals, which are thin enough in the image to see through, can make the plant itself seem less familiar. What a strange poppy!”
In history: Atkins’ Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions was the first book to be illustrated with photographs. The first volume was published in 1843, just one year after the cyanotype process was invented by Sir John Herschel; two more volumes were eventually produced.
