Museum

Anna Atkins was a botanist and one of the first people to successfully use the medium of photography as a scientific tool. Using the cyanotype printing process, named for its vivid blue color, Atkins placed dried fern specimens directly onto the surface of a piece of light-sensitive photographic paper, which she exposed to light to create a one-of-a-kind negative image. Atkins compiled her photographs into albums and distributed them privately to amateur scientists who shared her botanical interests. Atkins’s albums included cyanotypes of specimens from several continents, which she likely acquired by trading with her colleagues.