The Scientific Vision of Women

Jane Loudon made a name for herself first, not as an illustrator of botanicals, but as an author of science fiction. The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century was published to acclaim in 1827, in which an Egyptian mummy is brought back to life in the year 2126. Written by Jane at the age of twenty, it drew the attention and favor of John Loudon, a Scottish botanist. The two met and married shortly thereafter. 

Jane began writing and illustrating horticultural texts, particularly aimed at middle-class women. However, she felt that botany was a skill and knowledge to be shared by all. In the introduction to British Wild Flowers, she writes “though probably I shall not live to see it, when a knowledge of botany will be considered indispensable to every well-educated person.”

British Wild Flowers is one of over fifteen books about gardening written by Jane Loudon. The illustrations include several plants in one bouquet, intertwined on the page. This naturalistic approach shows the flowers in context, instead of straight scientific prints, which may have provided additional inspiration for the home gardener. Her goal with this work was to “enable any amateur who may find a pretty flower growing wild to ascertain its name and some particular respecting it.”

Label by Colette Harley