​Find out about Elizabeth Blackwell who was 
the first British woman ​to produce a Herbal and 
​​the first woman to engrave as well as draw plants.

​An introduction to Elizabeth Blackwell and "A Curious Herbal"
​

Elizabeth Blackwell is notable for being one of the first botanical artists to personally:
  1. draw 
  2. etch and engrave and
  3. hand colour colour her own designs. 
​This saved her the expense of hiring a professional engraver!
Blackwell is also notable for her publication "A Curious Herbal" in 1735. Blackwell compiled and published her hand drawn, engraved and coloured Herbal in order to raise funds to free her husband from debtors prison.

Carl Linnaeus gave her the affectionate nickname of Botanica Blackwellia

This page includes:
  • links to biographies and books about her life and work.
  • Plus online galleries and exhibitions which display her work.
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Elizabeth Blachrie Blackwell

Biography of Elizabeth Blackwell
​

Elizabeth Blackwell was among the first women to achieve fame as a botanical illustrator.
  • She was born Elizabeth Simpson in a house in Poultry, in the parish of St Mary Woolnoth in the City of London, on 23 April 1699
  • She trained as an artist (her father was artist Leonard Simpson).
  • She married her second cousin Alexander Blackwell when she was 27.
  • Her husband seemed to have a talent for being involved in dodgy business practices. He practised as a physician - but had no medical training. They fled to live in London when this was called into challenge.
  • In London her husband set up as a publisher - but neglected to undertake the four years of training required. Hence, he received hefty trade fines which he was unable to pay - and ended up in a debtors' prison
  • Elizabeth Blackwell undertook an ambitious project to raise money to pay her husband's debts and release him from debtors' prison.
  • Her project was a book called A Curious Herbal. 
  • She learned that a physicians required a reference book which documented the medicinal qualities of plants and herbs AND included illustrations so it could be used to identify the plants. Prior to her Herbal no such herbal existed in England.
  • In order to develop the illustrations for the Herbal she examined and drew specimens of plants available in the Chelsea Physic Garden.
  • She also produced the botanical engravings and hand coloured them.
  • She lived at 4 Swan Walk while drawing plants in the Physic Garden. Her children, William and Ann, both died in 1736, soon after she commenced work.
  • Her husband's role in the project was to provide the scientific nomenclature and common names of the plants in various languages and what they could be used for.
  • Sir Hans Sloane provided financial support to publish 'A Curious Herbal'.
  • After her husband's release from debtor's prison, he went to Sweden where he became involved in a plot attempting to change the Swedish succession and was put to death.

In total, the enterprise took Blackwell six full years to complete.

She was able to release her husband from prison.  Her husband emigrated to Sweden. He continued his 'career' by becoming involved in a a conspiracy to alter the Swedish succession and, as a result, was beheaded on 29 July 1747. After her husband's death Elizabeth Blackwell lived her life in obscurity - in Swan Walk - until her death in 1758.

Latterly however, as a result of the publication of a larger and expanded version in both German and Latin (Herbarium Blackwellianum Emendatum Et Auctum), she came to the attention of her contemporary Carl Linnaeus (1707 - 1778). He referred to her as Botanica Blackwellia.

Her grave is in the churchyard at Chelsea Old Church and she is one of the four names on a plaque in Chelsea Old Church dedicated to the memory of Chelsea women distinguished by their learning and piety.

Her book apparently remained in print for decades after her death....
Note: In researching Elizabeth Blackwell please note she is NOT to be confused with the medical practitioner of the same name who was the first woman in America to receive a medical degree. They are different people with different dates.
REFERENCE:
  • RECOMMENDED: Elizabeth Blackwell's 'A Curious Herbal' | British Library - The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell and how she came to create "A Curious Herbal" with its beautiful illustrations of medicinal plants.
  • RECOMMENDED - comprehensive biography Elizabeth Blackwell - the forgotten herbalist? | Wiley Online Library by Bruce Madge, Head of the Health Care Information Service, The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, UKWiley InterScience - Health Information and Libraries Journal,Volume 18, Issue 3 (p 144-15
Perfica Malus (The Peach Tree) - Plate 101
Perfica Malus (The Peach Tree) - Plate 101

"A Curious Herbal" - Book compiled and published by Elizabeth Blackwell
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Title Page of
Title Page of "A Curious Herbal" (1737) by Elizabeth Blackwell
Blackwell's book is notable both for its beautiful illustrations and for the unusual circumstances of its creation.
​
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.
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Guinea Pepper
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The Palm or Date Tree

What's a herbal?
​

A herbal is a book of plants, describing their appearance, their properties and how they may be used for preparing ointments and medicinal preparations, and the ailments for which they are used.  It contains illustrations which are used to help to identify the plant.​
  • The first herbal was written by the Greek physician Dioscorides in the first century AD. 
  • See Herbals for more about the History of Herbals and other examples
A Curious Herbal was well received by physicians and apothecaries for its scientific detail and accuracy.
  • Blackwell's Herbal was an unprecedented enterprise for a woman of her time.
  • She drew, engraved and coloured the illustrations herself
  • Most of her drawings were based on plant specimens from the Chelsea Physic Garden (see the bottom of the page)
  • The Herbal was issued in weekly parts between 1737 and 1739,
  • Each part containing four illustrated plates and a page of text.
  • It was highly praised by leading physicians and apothecaries (makers and sellers of medicines), and made enough money to secure her husband's freedom.

Plants were described, as well as illustrated, in terms of:
  • what they look in terms of size and growth habit
  • where they could be found in which months of the year
  • which parts of the plant can be used - and for what purpose
  • the other names of the plant - in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Dutch

One of the key aspects of this Herbal is that it immediately predates the Linnaean classification system - which did not yet exist. It's "birth" was located at the transition between two ways of categorising plants - with this Herbal being one of the last of the old way of classifying plants.

A Curious Herbal was published between 1737 and 1739.
  • This is because the final work, containing 500 illustrations was published in 125 weekly instalments. 
  • The book contained the first illustrations of many odd-looking, unknown plants from the New World.
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The page from "A Curious Herbal" which contains the letter from Elizabeth Blackwell to the Royal College of Physicians in London - revealing their support for her work to the world
The handsome two-volume set, featuring hundreds of Blackwell’s hand-colored full-page engravings, was embraced by the medical community and lauded by the Royal College of Physicians.
A Curious Herbal: Gorgeous Illustrations from Elizabeth Blackwell’s 18th-Century Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants
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Dandelion
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Garden Cucumber
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a page from "A Curious Herbal" detailing how individual plants were described
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The Tamarind Tree
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Red Beet
REFERENCE:

Online Editions of "A Curious Herbal" and its individual plates
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Herbarium Blackwellianum: Elizabeth Blackwell and Carl Linnaeus
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'Following publication, A curious herbal' became known across botanical circles across Europe. ​

An expanded version - in Germany and Latin - titled 'Herbarium Blackwellianum emendatum et auctum' was published in 6 volumes Nuremburg in 1757. 
This German edition was overseen, until his death, by the renowned Nuremberg physician and natural historian, Dr. Christopher Jacob Trew (1695-1769), who was in contact with Sloane and other English botanists. Trew also wrote the text, a translation of Blackwell's brief notes and his own additional lengthy notes, for the first ninety plates. The remaining text was written by G.R. Böhmer of Wittenberg and E.G. Bose of Leipzig under the supervision of C.G. Ludwig of Leipzig. N.J. Eisenberger was responsible for re-engraving Blackwell's original 500 plates and providing an additional 100. Publication began in 1747, on a subscription basis, and the text and plates were issued simultaneously until 1749, after which the text was published in arrears..... ​the publisher's complete copy with the reprinted title page for the first volume dated 1757.
​Carl Linnaeus, the famous Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus, was (probably) born the same year as Blackwell, and following the publication of the Curious Herbal revolutionized taxonomy with his binomial nomenclature.

Interesting Linnaeus may have played a part in the downfall of Blackwell's husband. He met him four years after Alexander Blackwell arrived in Sweden and was characterised by Linnaeus as "a bold atheistic ignoramus". Notes on how Linnaeus's commentary on Alexander may have contributed to his death can be found in Curious Herbal, Curious Tale by Gareth Evans.

Linnaeus became aware of Elizabeth's work and gave her the title of 'Botanica Blackwellia'.  It's clear that his disregard for the husband did not extend to Elizabeth Blackwell.
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'Herbarium Blackwellianum emendatum et auctum' (Nuremburg)
REFERENCE:

Chelsea Physic Garden - where the plant specimens came from
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Chelsea Physic Garden
66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HS, UK

This is where the plants came from which were included in "A Curious Herbal". ​Today the Chelsea Physic Garden has its own Florilegium Society.
See also
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Chelsea Physic Garden - where Blackwell got her plant specimens

More about Botanical Artists of the Past