Foxglove

Elizabeth Blachrie Blackwell (1707-1758) was a Scottish botanical illustrator and the author of A Curious Herbal, published in 1737 and 1739. Blackwell was the first woman to have singularly published an herbal, an encyclopedia detailing the medicinal properties of plants.

This illustration of the foxglove Digitalis purpurea is one of 500 botanical species Blackwell painted from living specimens at the Chelsea Physic Garden, a garden developed to educate apothecaries on plant identification. Between 1737 and 1739, Blackwell published weekly four plates that she had drawn, engraved, and hand-coloured herself. Blackwell also engraved the text of the work, an unusual practice in botanical manuscripts. Traditionally the production of such an herbal would have employed three separate artists, but Blackwell completed all three tasks herself. The College of Physicians, when presented with Blackwell’s creation, issued a glowing endorsement. Previous herbals sorely lacked the comprehensiveness of Blackwell’s atlas of medicinal plants, and Blackwell enjoyed financial success from her work. She used the proceeds from her herbal to liberate her husband from debtor’s prison.

On the appearance and uses of the foxglove, Blackwell writes: “It grows to be three Foot high; the Leaves have a little Down upon them; [the] Flowers are red, spotted with white, and grow all on one side of the Stalks. Fox-Glove grows in Hedges and Lanes; and flowers in June and July. This Plant is but rarely used inwardly, being a strong Emetic, working with Violence upwards and downwards…”