Atkins, Anna (1799–1871)

English photographer and illustrator. A specialist in scientific illustration, her books of original cyanotype (blueprint) illustrations of plants are particularly remarkable, the first being British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (12 parts, 1843–53). She pioneered the use of photographic illustration as part of an extensive scientific study of the natural world.

Born in Tonbridge, Atkins was the daughter of the scientist John George Children who had an early interest in the processes of photography, and was also a friend of John Herschel, the originator of the cyanotype process. Her book containing photographic illustration pre-dates the Pencil of Nature (1844–46) by photographer William Henry Fox Talbot, which was the first commercially produced book illustrated in this manner.