Elizabeth Blackwell: 18th century pioneer in Art, Botany and Copyright
She drew plants and tested the law
On 10 September 1734, the London Gazette published a notice about an impending bankruptcy trial. The debtor was Alexander Blackwell, a Scottish doctor who had set up as a printer in the city. Blackwell had previously worked as a proofreader for William Wilkins, a newspaper proprietor in Little Britain, an area of narrow lanes tucked away between St Bartholemew’s Hospital and London Wall. After learning something of the printing trade, Blackwell left to start his own business but soon fell into financial ruin. Unable to pay his debts, Alexander Blackwell was declared bankrupt and carted off to gaol.
Determined to clear her husband’s debts, Elizabeth Blackwell devised a plan to raise money. As a girl, she loved plants and had been taught to draw by her father, the artist Leonard Simpson. Using these skills, she created detailed illustrations of medicinal plants — she drew and engraved them and hand coloured the prints — and issued them in instalments of four plates a week. Over four years, she produced 500 accurate engravings of species grown in Chelsea Physic Garden by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. These included specimens brought back from the Americas by Sir Hans Sloane. To ensure access to the plants while they were still fresh…
