Nostoe commune
ca. 1853
Medium
Cyanotype
Dimensions
Image: 25.3 x 20 cm (9 15/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.557 (112)
Art Historical Context
**Nostoe commune**, a captivating cyanotype by Anna Atkins from around 1853, invites visitors to marvel at one of the earliest fusions of science and photography. Atkins, a British botanist and photographer, this delicate blue-toned image measuring 25.3 x 20 cm as a direct contact print of the algae *Nostoc commune*. the cyanotype process—invented just a few years earlier by Sir John Herschel—she coated paper with light-sensitive iron salts, placed the specimen directly on it, and exposed it to sunlight. The result is a ghostly, precise silhouette that captures the plant's intricate textures w...
About the Artist
Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins (née Children), born on March 16, 1799, in Tonbridge, Kent, England, grew up immersed in the world of science thanks to her father, John George Children, a prominent chemist, zoologist, and curator at the British Museum. After her mother Hester's death shortly after childbirth in 1800, Anna formed a close bond with her father, receiving an exceptional scientific education rare for wome...