A Short History of Cyanotype by Emily Sheffer

A Short History of Cyanotype explores how invention of photography was influenced by the fields of chemistry, botany, and astronomy, and driven a social circle that included Henry Fox Talbot, John Herschel, and Anna Atkins.

Using the earliest photographic processes, Henry Fox Talbot made dozens of botanical prints. John George Children, a botanist, studied Talbot’s prints, and shared them with his daughter, Anna Atkins.

In 1842, British astronomer John Herschel invented cyanotype printing. In under a year, Anna Atkins began her photographic work. 

Today, Anna Atkins is acknowledged as the first female photographer, and her work, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843) is considered the  first photographically illustrated book.

This book was made during the Maine Media Workshops and College Book Arts Residency in 2019. Select images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The New York Public Library.

Edition of 10
8.5” x 11”

Four hand stitched soft cover books in a custom clamshell box.
Letterpress text. Images printed on archival inkjet paper, interleaved with vellum inserts.

Autumn 2019, designed by Emily Sheffer and published by Dust Collective.