Anna Atkins: Botanical Vintage Photo Poster

Title: Chorda filum Artist: Anna Atkins (British, 1799–1871) Date: ca. 1853 Medium: Cyanotype ---------The cyanotype, a photographic printing technique, creates captivating blue prints through light exposure on coated paper. This innovative process was pioneered by scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1842. Herschel's motive was to replicate mathematical tables, notes, and diagrams. Architects and engineers adopted the cyanotype method to reproduce architectural drawings, coining the term "blueprint." Soon after Herschel's discovery, his friend, photographer Anna Atkins, embraced cyanotype for book illustration. She utilized the technique to create cyanotypes of plants, producing the first-ever book with photographic images, titled "Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns." This process revolutionized photography and artistic expression.