The art of science: women illustrators

Susanna (d.1669) and Anna Lister (1671-1700), daughters of the naturalist Martin Lister FRS (1639-1712) drew and engraved beautifully accurate plates of shells for the first comprehensive work on conchology, their father's Historiae Conchyliorum.

They traced shell outlines directly onto the copper to remain as close to the object contours as possible.

The Zurich-born miniaturist and portrait painter Anna Waser (1678-1714) accepted commissioned work and was a court painter.

She produced original illustrations on vellum for the Itinera Alpina of the polymath Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733).

The book was sent to the Royal Society for publication with the endorsement of Sir Isaac Newton.

Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717) started as a botanic illustrator, publishing Neues Blumenbuch at the age of 28 years old.

The German-born naturalist is now most famous for contributing to entomology through her splendid watercolours of insects in Surinam.

During a scientific exploration of the then Dutch colony in 1699, Merian illustrated the metamorphosis of insects, representing their full life-cycles and habitats.

Maria Merian’s remarkable studies of insect life in South America contain many first-time observations and famous plates, including an apparent bird-eating spider.

Merian published her observations upon her return to Amsterdam in Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium.

She hand-coloured the engraved plates of several of the books, but the copy of the Royal Society is only partially coloured.

The Scottish botanic illustrator, Elizabeth Blackwell (1707-1758) created hundreds of illustrations for her Curious Herbal (1737) to raise money after her husband was imprisoned for debt.

She trained as a botanist at Chelsea Physic Garden and made at least one medical plate for the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions during that period. Her reputation for accuracy secured this second edition.

Sarah Stone (1760–1844) recorded the contents of the dispersed Leverian Museum, including material from James Cook’s voyages presenting the first studies of various species.

The natural history illustrator exhibited at the Royal Academy. Her illustrations for John White’s Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales contained plates of later Australian material, including birds such as the now-extinct Lord Howe Swamphen.