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Elizabeth Blackwell (illustrator)

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For British physician, see Elizabeth Blackwell.

Elizabeth Blackwell
Born1707
Died1758
NationalityScottish
Known forillustrator
SpouseAlexander Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell (1707[1] –1758) was a Scottish botanical illustrator and author who was best known as both the artist and engraver for the plates of "A Curious Herbal", published between 1737 and 1739. The book illustrated medicinal plants, and was designed as a reference work for the use of physicians and apothecaries.

Life

Figure 1: Illustration from A Curious Herbal
Figure 2: Illustration from Herbarium Blackwellianum

Elizabeth Blachrie was the daughter of a successful Scottish merchant and wife of Scottish doctor and economist Alexander Blackwell.[2] Elizabeth fled her hometown of Aberdeen when questions arose regarding her husband's qualifications. In fear that Alexander could be charged for illegal practice, Elizabeth and her husband moved to London post-haste.  Elizabeth's husband continued his questionable decision-making in London. Alexander became associated with a publishing firm and established his own printing house despite not belonging to a guild or serving the required apprenticeship. Alexander was charged with flouting trade rules and was heavily fined. These heavy fines in addition to Alexander's lavish spending habits led to his subsequent stay in debtors' prison.

Accomplishments

Left to her own devices with no income a house to run and a child to raise Blackwell decided to put to use her training as an artist. She learned that a herbal was needed to depict and describe exotic plants from the New World. She decided that she could illustrate it and that Alexander, given his medical background, could write the descriptions of the plants. As she completed the drawings, Blackwell would take them to her husband's cell where he supplied the correct names in Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and German.[3]

Blackwell was an amateur in botany. To compensate for this, she was aided by Isaac Rand, then curator of the Chelsea Physick Garden, where many of these new plants were under cultivation. At Rand's suggestion, she relocated near the Garden so she could draw the plants from life. In addition to the drawings, Blackwell engraved the copper printing plates for the 500 images and text and hand-colored the printed illustrations.[3]

The task of creating A Curious Herbal was immense and took a number of years to complete. A Curious Herbal, containing five hundred cuts of the most useful plants which are now used in the Practise of Physick, to which is added a short description of ye plants and their common uses in Physick[4] was issued in weekly parts, each containing four plates and accompanying text over 125 weeks between 1737 and 1739. The first volume contained 250 plates and was published in 1737. The imprint read "London printed for Samuel Harding in St Martin’s Lane"[5] and the new publication was announced in the Gentleman’s Magazine for July 1737."[6]

The Country Journal: or the Craftsman for 6 May 1738 records the publication of the first volume of 252 plates of plants. It noted further that "a further 132 plates of plants for the second volume"[7] had been published and that "the whole 500 will be finished in eight months";[8] a dedication to Dr. John Johnstoun is dated the 17th January 1739.[9] The advertisement in The Country Journal closes with a warning against a spurious and base copy of the work sold by Samuel Harding.[10]

The first printing of A Curious Herbal met with moderate success, both because of the meticulous quality of the illustrations and the great need for an updated herbal. Physicians and apothecaries acclaimed the work, and it received a commendation from the Royal College of Physicians. A second edition was printed 20 years later in a revised and enlarged format in Nuremberg by Dr. Christoph Jacob Trew, a botanist and physician, between 1757 and 1773.[3]

Revenue from the book led to Alexander's release from prison. However, within a short while debts again accumulated, forcing the couple to sell some of the publication rights to the book. Alexander also became involved in several unsuccessful business ventures, and eventually left the family to start a new life in Sweden. Where Alexander's trail of bad decisions lead him to death by execution for conspiracy against the Crown on August 9 1747 as Elizabeth was leaving London to join him.

Little is known of Blackwell's later years. She was buried on 27 October 1758,[11] and her grave is at All Saints Church in Chelsea, London.[12] She remained loyal to Alexander throughout, even sharing royalties with him from the sale of additional book rights.

Blackwell has a genus of plants named after her, Blackwellia of the class Dodecandria Pentagynia. There are six sub species of Blackwellia; Blackwellia Panticulata, Blackwellia Glauca, Blackwellia Nipaulensis, Blackwellia Axillaris, Blackwellia Siralis, Blackwellia Padifolia. These species are native to Réunion, Mauritius, Nepal, Madagascar, Peru and China respectively.[13]

Reception

While Blackwell's work in Curious Herbal is referenced in many histories of botany, she appears to receive scant attention from the Society of Apothecaries who owned the Chelsea Physic Garden where she undertook her work on the herbal. The more scholarly works on botany, particularly that of Wilfrid Blunt,[14] dismiss her contribution to botany as not particularly scientific. However, her achievement is in making an illustrated list of medicinal plants available to the medical profession and the more enlightened public of the time. In preparing her work she managed to enlist the help of noteworthy patrons such as Sir Hans Sloane and Dr. Richard Mead as well as Dr. James Douglas (1675–1742), the obstetrician, who considered her to be one of the hundred most famous women of history.[15] The skill and diligence she displayed in engraving and hand painting all the plates herself should also be remembered as should her dedication to freeing her husband from debtors prison."[16]

Blackwell's "A Curious Herbal" has been featured on the British Library website as a "classic of botanical illustration." The book is available to view online using the Turning the Pages system.[17] Preserved in the British Library's manuscript collections are several transactions made during 1737 and 1747 regarding the purchase of shares and copyright deed to the herbal from Alexander and Elizabeth Blackwell by John Nourse.

Publications

  • A curious herbal: containing five hundred cuts, of the most useful plants, which are now used in the practice of physick engraved on folio copper plates, after drawings taken from the life / by Elizabeth Blackwell. To which is added a short description of ye plants and their common uses in physick.[18] (London, 1737–1739), her great herbal, which contained engravings drawn from specimens in the Chelsea Physic Garden
  • Herbarium Blackwellianum emendatum et auctum, id est, Elisabethae Blackwell collectio stirpium :quae in pharmacopoliis ad medicum usum asseruantur, quarum descriptio et vires ex Anglico idiomate in Latinum conversae sistuntur figurae maximam partem ad naturale exemplar emendantur floris fructusque partium repraesentatione augentur et probatis botanicorum nominibus illustrentur. Cum praefatione Tit. Pl. D.D. Christophori Iacobi Trew; excudit figuras pinxit atque in aes incidit Nicolaus Fridericus Eisenbergerus ...

By : Blackwell, Elizabeth, - Eisenberger, Nicolaus Friedrich, - Trew, Christoph Jacob, - Christiani de Launoy. - Io. Iosephi Fleischmanni. Publication : Norimbergae : Typis Io. Iosephi Fleischmanni, 1750–1773. online and download

The standard author abbreviation Blackw. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[19]
  • Figure 3
    Figure 3
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    Figure 4
  • Figure 5
    Figure 5
  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

References

  1. ^ Madge, Bruce (30 July 2001). "Elizabeth Blackwell—the forgotten herbalist?". Health Information & Libraries Journal. 18 (3): 144–152. doi:10.1046/j.1471-1842.2001.00330.x – via Wiley Online Library.
  2. ^ "Scots in Sweden – Eighteenth Century". www.electricscotland.com.
  3. ^ a b c Garnett 1886.
  4. ^ Blackwell, Elizabeth (1739). A Curious Herbal: Containing 500 Cuts, of the Most Useful Plants, which are Now Used in the Practice of Physick...; to which is Added a Short Description of Ye Plants, and Their Common Uses in Physick. Nourse.
  5. ^ Madge, Bruce (30 July 2001). "Elizabeth Blackwell—the forgotten herbalist?". Health Information & Libraries Journal. 18 (3): 144–152.
  6. ^ Madge, Bruce (30 July 2001). "Elizabeth Blackwell—the forgotten herbalist?". Health Information & Libraries Journal. 18 (3): 144–152.
  7. ^ Weston, R (1806). "A review of the principal authors on horticulture and botany, from 1480 to 1750". The Gentleman’s Magazine. 18 (3): 1101.
  8. ^ Weston, R (1806). "A review of the principal authors on horticulture and botany, from 1480 to 1750". The Gentleman’s Magazine. 18 (3): 1101.
  9. ^ Weston, R (1806). "A review of the principal authors on horticulture and botany, from 1480 to 1750". The Gentleman’s Magazine. 18 (3): 1101.
  10. ^ Madge, Bruce (30 July 2001). "Elizabeth Blackwell—the forgotten herbalist?". Health Information & Libraries Journal. 18 (3): 144–152.
  11. ^ "Ancestry® | Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History Records".
  12. ^ "Elizabeth Blackwell". National Library of Scotland.
  13. ^ Miller, Philip (30 July 1835). "The gardeners dictionary" – via Google Books.
  14. ^ Blunt, Wilfrid (1950). The art of botanical illustration Collins. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  15. ^ Mead, Kate Campbell Hurd (1938). A History of Women in Medicine: From the Earliest Times to the Begining of the Nineteenth Century. Haddam Press.
  16. ^ Madge, Bruce (30 July 2001). "Elizabeth Blackwell—the forgotten herbalist?". Health Information & Libraries Journal. 18 (3): 144–152.
  17. ^ "Virtual books". The British Library.
  18. ^ Blackwell, Elizabeth; Harding, Samuel; Nourse, John (30 July 1737). A curious herbal :containing five hundred cuts, of the most useful plants, which are now used in the practice of physick engraved on folio copper plates, after drawings taken from the life. Printed for Samuel Harding.
  19. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Blackw.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Garnett, Richard (1886). "Blackwell, Elizabeth". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Further reading

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Historical editions

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