Collection: Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, Anna Atkins - 1853

The first printed and photographically illustrated book, Photographs of British Algae was published in fascicles from 1843 and is a landmark in the history of photography. From specimens she had collected herself or received from other amateur scientists, Atkins made the plates by placing wet algae directly on photosensitized paper and exposing the paper to sunlight. In the 1840s, the study of algae was just beginning to be systematized in Britain, and Atkins based her nomenclature on William Harvey's unillustrated Manual of British Algae (1841), labeling each plate in her own hand.

Although artistic expression was not his primary goal, Atkins was sensitive to the visual appeal of these "flowers of the sea" and arranged his specimens on the page in imaginative and elegant compositions. Combining rational science with art, Photographs of British Algae is an ambitious and effective book composed entirely of cyanotypes, a process invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel and long used by architects to duplicate their line drawings as plans.