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Glasgow Museums

Anna Atkins - cyanotypes

collections within Glasgow Museums Anna Atkins - cyanotypes Charles Rennie Mackintosh & The Glasgow Style Costumes Parisienne French Impressionists & Post Impressionists Glasgow Boys Glasgow Museums Japanese Decorative Papers Japanese woodblock prints Pre-Raphaelites Salvador Dali Scottish Colourists social history

Anna Atkins (1799–1871) was an English botanist, botanical artist and pioneer of early photography. Her Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, first published in 1843, is recognised as the first book to be illustrated with photographic images.
Her delicate cyanotype impressions of algae, ferns and other botanical specimens have a timeless quality, combining scientific precision with an unexpectedly beautiful sense of composition. The distinctive blue and white imagery is both ethereal and striking, making these historic designs particularly well suited to stationery, cards, textiles, homewares and other products.

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