Behind the Scenes - Anna Atkins

4th July 2012: A very special behind the scenes feature this month! We are delighted to highlight the work of Glasgow Museum's heritage photographer Anna Atkins (maiden name Anna Children).

Text quoted from Wikipedia: "Born 16 March 1799, Anna Atkins was an English botanist and photographer. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Some sources claim that she was the first woman to create a photograph.

Early life

Anna Children was born in Tonbridge, Kent, England in 1799 Her mother Hester Anne "didn't recover from the effects of childbirth" and died in 1800. Anna became close to her father John George Children who was a scientist of many interests; for example, he was honoured by having the mineral childrenite and the Children's python, Antaresia childreni, named after him. She "received an unusually scientific education for a woman of her time." Her detailed engravings of shells were used to illustrate her father's translation of Lamarck's Genera of Shells, which was published in 1823.

John George Children            mineral 'Childrenite'                                    Anna Atkins 'Sun Gardens'

Atkins married John Pelly Atkins in 1825, and they moved to Halstead Place, the Atkins family home in Sevenoaks, Kent. She then pursued her interests in botany, for example by collecting dried plants. These were probably used as photograms later.

Photography

John George Children and John Pelly Atkins were friends of William Fox Talbot. Anna Atkins learned directly from Talbot about two of his inventions related to photography: the "photogenic drawing" technique (in which an object is placed on light-sensitized paper which is exposed to the sun to produce an image) and calotypes.

Atkins was known to have had access to a camera by 1841. Some sources claim that Atkins was the first female photographer. Other sources name Constance Talbot, the wife of William Fox Talbot, as the first female photographer. As no camera-based photographs by Anna Atkins or any photographs by Constance Talbot survive, the issue may never be resolved"