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Western Libraries

Botanical Illustration Resources: Women as Botanical Illustrators

A Selected Bibliography created for the 1999 Northwest Botanical Illustration Symposium (updated frequently) Compiled by Julene Sodt, of the Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA

Women as Botanical Illustrators

Brilliant Careers: Women Collectors and Illustrators in Queensland . South Brisbane, Australia: Queensland Museum, 1997.
        This book was designed to accompany the exhibit with the same name both highlighting the work of 33 women collectors and illustrators in Queensland, Australia. 80 pages.

Davis, Natalie Zemon. Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1995.
        This work profiles three women, one Jewish, one Catholic, one Protestant whose memoirs, letters, and paintings reveal much about the lives of women in early modern Europe. The Protestant woman, Maria Sybille Merian, is an entomologist who painted plants upon which insects fed. 360 pages.

Kramer, Jack. Women of Flowers: A Tribute to Victorian Women Illustrators . New York: Stewart Tabori & Chang, 1996.
        Over 150 floral paintings and prints illustrate the life stories of 35 Victorian women artists from America, England, Germany and France. While they received little or no recognition during their lifetime, each made tremendous contributions to the art and science of botany. 223 pages.

Mongan, Agnes. "A Fete of Flowers: Women Artists’ Contribution to Botanical Illustration." Apollo, vol. 119 (April 1984), p. 264-267.
        This article highlights the collection of botanical works by numerous known and unknown women artists (from Giovanna Garconi [1600-1670] to Margaret Mee) held in the Rare Book Room of the Garden Library at Dumbarton Oaks.