Anna Frances Walker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Anna Frances Walker
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Anna Frances Walker
23 June 1830 Concord, New South Wales, Australia
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| Died | 5 January 1913 (aged 82) Concord, New South Wales, Australia
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| Occupation | writer, botanical collector, botanical illustrator |
Anna Frances Walker (born 1830, died 1913) was an important Australian artist and scientist. She was known for collecting plants and drawing them beautifully. She was an early botanical collector and plant illustrator in Australia.
Anna Frances Walker was born in 1830. Her family lived at a home called "Rhodes" in Concord, New South Wales, near the Parramatta River. She was one of many children.
In 1832, when Anna was very young, her family moved to Van Diemen's Land (which is now called Tasmania). There, she and her mother enjoyed collecting plants and painting them.
When Anna was about 16 or 17, she moved back to New South Wales. She lived with her grandmother and learned how to paint with watercolors from an artist named Henry Curzon Allport.
After her father passed away in 1861, her family moved back to their home "Rhodes" in Sydney in 1870. Anna lived there for the rest of her life.
Her Artwork and Books
By 1881, Anna had created many amazing plant drawings. She reached out to Ferdinand von Mueller, a famous botanist in Melbourne. She asked him for help identifying plants and for advice on how to publish her work.
In 1887, Anna published a small book of her paintings called Flowers of New South Wales. However, the printed pictures were not very good quality. Also, the text she wrote didn't show much scientific understanding of plants.
Some of the plants she drew in her book included:
- Ceratopetalum gummiferum
- Acacia spectabilis
- Epacris longiflora
- Zieria laevigata
- Blandfordia nobilis
- Darwinia fascicularis
- Ricinocarpos pinifolius
- Epacris microphylla
- Sprengelia incarnata
- Gompholobium grandiflorum
- Bauera rubioides
- Melaleuca linariifolia
- Eriostemon silicifolius
- Kennedia monophylla
- Clematis glycinoides
Anna created about 1700 illustrations of plants from Tasmania and New South Wales. She painted these between 1875 and 1910. Sadly, she couldn't find a publisher for her large collection. In 1910, she sold her eight volumes of artwork to David Scott Mitchell for £70.
Her Plant Collections
The National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL) has 19 plant samples that Anna collected. She sent these to Ferdinand von Mueller between 1892 and 1895. Mueller also wrote 21 letters to Anna that are still kept today.
The Australasian Virtual Herbarium lists 17 plant samples collected by "Walker, A.F." All of these are kept at MEL. Fourteen of them are fungi, and three are plants. A type of fungus, Cortinarius walkeri, is named after her. The original sample of this fungus was collected by Anna herself.
| Some specimens collected by Anna F. Walker | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Awards
Anna Frances Walker received several awards for her beautiful artwork:
- In 1873, she won a gold medal for her watercolor paintings of Tasmanian flowers at the London International Exhibition.
- In 1876, she earned a certificate of merit at the Academy of Arts show.
- At the International Exhibition in Sydney in 1879, she was "Highly Commended."
- In 1880, she won first place at the Melbourne Exhibition.
