The Scientific Vision of Women

Regina Olson Hughes had a long and prolific career as a scientific illustrator. Born in Herman, Nebraska, in 1895, Hughes lost her hearing following an illness at the age of thirteen. Passionate about art and nature from an early age, Hughes attended Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a pioneering institution providing higher education to the deaf and hard of hearing community, to study art. She graduated in 1918 and later married a teacher at the school, Frederick Hughes.

Fluent in several languages, Hughes initially worked as a translator for the State Department before taking a position as an illustrator with the Agricultural Research Service in the Department of Agriculture. During her nearly four-decade career at the USDA, Hughes created thousands of botanical illustrations, including those featured in Common Weeds of the United States (shown here). Using a microscope, pen, and paper, Hughes captured the smallest details of plants, like the fragrant water lily, on the page. From leaves and stems to flowers and seeds, Hughes’s drawings are precise and practical, aiding farmers in identifying troublesome weeds in their fields.      

Hughes retired from the USDA in 1969, but it was a short retirement. She was quickly hired by the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History, where she worked alongside museum scientists and painted watercolors of orchids (an example shown here.) These illustrations, while more visually striking than her earlier work, reflect her continued commitment to scientific accuracy. Hughes’s work was widely admired during her lifetime. Her orchid paintings were exhibited in many locations, including the Rotunda Gallery of the Museum, making her the first deaf artist to have work displayed at the Smithsonian. Hughes continued working into her nineties and died in 1993 at the age of 98.

Label by Brooke Guthrie