In August 1851 pioneering photographer and botanist Anna Atkins arrived at Chatsworth accompanied by her husband, father and family relatives. The visitor book for 26th August documented the group, capturing evidence of a long journey from their home in Kent. (i)
After visiting Joseph Paxton’s magnificent Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, Anna now headed to its Derbyshire predecessor - the great conservatory at Chatsworth. She recalled the journey in her father John George Children’s memoir -
"In the summer of 1851 Mr. C. joined Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Burnaby and Mr. and Mrs. Atkins in a ramble among the beauties of Derbyshire…" (ii)
Anna was a dedicated botanist and was no doubt already aware of the extraordinary botany in cultivation at 6th Duke of Devonshire’s ‘Great Conservatory’. The Victorian fern ‘craze’ was gathering pace and Anna might have read about Chatsworth conservatory ferns in Paxton’s Magazine of Botany (1849)-
"...the large rockery in the Great Conservatory at Chatsworth, ...plume-like, delicately green foliage, which renders it particularly attractive." (iii)
Anna turned her photographic attention to ferns using the cyanotype process, collecting and photographing specimens in collaboration with her close friend Anne Dixon. Specimens of Adiantum cuneatum and Aspidium obtusium collected at Chatsworth were placed onto paper coated in photo sensitive iron salts, then exposed to the sun and washed in water to form a white image on blue background.
Image1: Anna Atkins (1799 - 1871) and Anne Dixon (1799 - 1864)
Adiantum cuneatum, 1853, Cyanotype
Image 2: Anna Atkins (1799 - 1871) and Anne Dixon (1799 - 1864)
Aspidium obtusium, 1853, Cyanotype
Image 3: Close up cropped image of the Aspidium obtusium*
Anna previously used cyanotype photography to create the first book to be illustrated with photographic images. Between 1843 and 1853 she photographed and self published over 400 specimens of British algae. In 2004 Lord Burlington acquired two volumes of Photographs of British Algae, Cyanotype Impressions, which are featured in the 2025 exhibition, The Gorgeous Nothings: Flowers at Chatsworth.
Fig. 4: Photographs of British Algae, Cyanotype Impressions by Anna Atkins on display in the Oak Room, Chatsworth. © Rose Teanby
The Gorgeous Nothings: Flowers at Chatsworth aims to highlight ‘the resilience and persistence of nature’, perfectly demonstrated by Anna’s use of early photography giving 1850s British algae new life.
How fortunate that her 1851 ‘ramble among the beauties of Derbyshire’ also preserved two stunning fern specimens, extending the life of Paxton’s delicate green foliage by transformation into works of botanical photographic art.
References
- This entry in the 1851 Chatsworth Visitors Book was recently located by Archive and Library Assistant Georgia Wilson.
- Atkins, Anna. Memoir of J. G. Children : Including Some Unpublished Poetry by His Father and Himself. Printed (for private distribution only) by John Bowyer Nichols and sons (1853). p.305.
- Paxton's magazine of botany, and register of flowering plants, v.16, London: William S. Orr & Co. (1849). p.121.
* Images 1, 2 and 3 via The J. Paul Getty Museum. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program
Dr Rose Teanby is an independent photographic historian specialising in early British women photographers and a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. She wrote about Anna Atkins in A World History of Women Photographers (2022) and has presented her research to the 2018 Anna Atkins Symposium at New York Public Library and 2021 V&A Colour Fever conference.
