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A Curious Herbal
"Cinamon Tree - Cinamomum" in A curious herbal Volume I, Elizabeth Blackwell, 1739, printed book. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 270004 v.2.
A Curious Herbal
Title page in A curious herbal Volume I, Elizabeth Blackwell, 1739, printed book. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 270004 v.1.
Elizabeth Blackwell’s A Curious Herbal is a two-volume work containing 500 botanical illustrations. For each illustration, Blackwell provided four pages documenting the medicinal qualities of plants. Originally published in 125 weekly installments, the work took Blackwell six years to complete. In 1737, Blackwell compiled and published the first volume of A Curious Herbal. In 1738 or 1739 (the year is debated), she compiled and published the second volume.
In creating and publishing her work, Blackwell made important contributions to the medical field. The work served as a valuable resource for doctors and apothecaries (pharmacists) for decades after its publication.
Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in the early 1700s to a wealthy family in Scotland. As the daughter of a successful merchant, Blackwell would have received a high-quality education, including instruction on art, music, and languages. As an adult, she made use of this education when creating her herbal.
Blackwell applied her arts education to the field of botany. Natural history, especially botany, was seen as a suitable occupation or pastime for women. When her husband was sent to prison because he could not pay off his debts, Blackwell created and published A Curious Herbal as a way to earn money . Blackwell was the first woman to publish an herbal in Europe.
The World of Herbals
An herbal is a medical text describing plants’ appearances, properties, medicinal uses, and medicinal preparations. Below are some key points in the millennia-long history of herbals.
Written documentation of the medical uses of plants dates back 5,000 years in Egypt, Samaria, and China. It is also possible that Mesoamerican societies were creating similar written documentation during this time period, but no records survive.
The Greek physician Dioscorides was the first European to create a written documentation of the medical uses of plants. His work, translated into Arabic and Latin, spread throughout the Christian and Islamic world and influenced medical practice for millennia.
Following the European printing innovations in the mid-15th century, herbals could be produced more quickly and less expensively. This meant more physicians and apothecaries were able to access the information.
Herbals were popular in England when Blackwell entered the world of botany and decided to create her own work. One of the most popular herbals available at the time was John Gerard’s Generall Historie of Plantes (General History of Plants) published in 1597. Use the image slider below to compare and contrast Gerard’s and Blackwell’s illustrations of saffron.
Questions & Prompts
Look closely at Blackwell’s illustration. What is the first thing you notice? What holds your attention? Now look closely at Gerard’s illustration. Did the same things catch your eye? Did the same things interest you?
What similarities do you notice between Blackwell’s and Gerard’s saffron illustrations? What differences do you notice between the two illustrations?
Is there anything you can learn about the plant by looking at Blackwell’s illustration that you cannot learn by looking at Gerard’s illustration?
Is there anything you can learn about the plant by looking at Gerard’s illustration that you cannot learn by looking at Blackwell’s illustration?
Blackwell: Scientist and Artist
A Curious Herbal was very well received in professional medical circles because of the scientific detail and accuracy of the illustrations and the text. Blackwell was committed to quality, and she was one of the first botanical artists to draw, etch, engrave, and hand-color her works. Use the image slider below to compare and contrast a photo of borage with Blackwell’s illustrations of borage.
Questions & Prompts
Look closely at the photo of the plant. What is the first thing you notice? What holds your attention? Now look closely at Blackwell’s illustration. Did the same things catch your eye? Did the same things interest you?
What similarities do you notice between the photo of the plant and the illustration of the plant? What differences do you notice between the photo and the illustration?
Is there anything you can learn about the plant by looking at the photo that you cannot learn by looking at Blackwell’s illustration?
Is there anything you can learn about the plant by looking at the photo that you cannot learn by looking at Blackwell’s illustration?
Blackwell’s work for each plant began with scientific and artistic observations.
She spent countless hours studying and drawing plants in the Chelsea Physic Garden, which had been established in London a few decades earlier to teach apothecary students about medicinal plants. Blackwell drew the plants as accurately as possible, ensuring her illustrations included the information that doctors and apothecaries would need in order to identify the plants and find their useful parts.
Blackwell supplemented her observations with research from existing herbals. She studied the popular herbals available to her and included the information she learned in her own text. Blackwell combined her observations and her research to provide the following information for each plant:
The size of the plant
The growing pattern from seed to full grown plant
The range of the plant (where it grows)
The growth period of the plant (when it grows)
The uses of the plant’s parts
Once she had written the text for a plant, Blackwell sent it to her husband in prison and he edited the work and provided the scientific and common names for the plants in various languages.
In order to publish her work, Blackwell created etchings, also known as “cuts” for each of her illustrations and text pages. Watch this video from National Museums Liverpool to learn more about the copper etching process.
Use the questions and prompts below to guide your analysis of one (or more) of Blackwell’s illustrations.
Questions & Prompts
Look closely at this herbal illustration. What do you notice first? What do you notice after looking for a full minute?
How did Blackwell use observations of the natural world when creating this work?
How did Blackwell use her imagination and creativity when creating this work?
Does this work remind you of anything? What? Why?
What do you think Blackwell was trying to communicate? What do you see in the object that makes you think that?
How does Blackwell’s culture affect her understanding of plants?
What do you know about the plant in your illustration?
Read your botanical illustration. Which parts of the plant are used in medicine? Where are these parts located on the plant? What is the plant’s Latin name? What is the plant’s English name?
Blackwell: Businesswoman
Because of its detailed illustrations and comprehensive medical text, A Curious Herbal had the potential to be an immensely valuable resource for the medical practitioners of Blackwell’s time. However, to make that potential a reality, Blackwell needed to employ another skillset. Her book’s success isn’t just the result of her talents and hard work in the worlds of botany and art. She was also a skilled and hard-working businesswoman.
She was likely considering the marketing of her work from the very beginning and identifying a consumer need for a comprehensive illustrated herbal. She also focused her herbal on species indigenous to North and South America because these plants were less familiar, new, and exciting to her audience.
Once the text and illustrations for each volume were complete, Blackwell focused on publishing and marketing the book. She advertised her book by speaking about it, writing about it in journals, and by creating deals with booksellers to have them promote her work. One of Blackwell’s biggest marketing techniques for the book was generating respect and trust for the work. Use the interactive image below to explore the volumes’ introduction page.
blackwell endorsement
blackwell endorsement
Endorsement page in A curious herbal Volume I, Elizabeth Blackwell, 1739, printed book. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 270004 v.1.
- The Royal College of Physicians supplied the book’s title page as an endorsement of the work. The Latin reads: “We judge that these images of plants drawn by Madam Elizabeth Blackwell, cut and depicted in copper, will be very useful to those who are engaged in medicine.”
- The Board of the Royal College of Physicians signed their names in support of this text.
- Theophrastus c. 371 – c. 287 BC. Theophrastus was Plato and Aristotle’s student and is often considered one of the most important early botanists. He wrote two influential botanical books, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants. These books were translated into Latin in the medieval period and were highly influential in Renaissance Europe.
- Dioscorides: Dioscorides (c. 40 - c. 90 AD) was a Greek physician and is considered to have written the first herbal, De materia medica (on medical material). His work, translated into Arabic and Latin, spread throughout the Christian and Islamic worlds and influenced medical practice until the late 17th century.
References and Resources
British Library. “A Curious Herbal – Dandelion.” n.d. Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/a-curious-herbal-dandelion.
Botanical Art & Artists. n.d. “About Elizabeth Blackwell.” Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.botanicalartandartists.com/about-elizabeth-blackwell.html.
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh daisy. n.d. “Elizabeth Blackwell: Prison, Plotting and the Curious Herbal.” Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/elizabeth-blackwell-prison-plotting-and-curious-herbal.
National Library of Scotland. n.d. “Elizabeth Blackwell: Amateur Botanist and Artist, about 1700-1758.” Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.nls.uk/learning-zone/science-and-technology/women-scientists/elizabeth-blackwell/.
The Linnean Society of Scotland. 2021. “Elizabeth Blackwell’s Curious Herbal.” Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.linnean.org/news/2021/07/28/elizabeth-blackwells-curious-herbal.
Madge, Bruce. 2001. “Elizabeth Blackwell—the Forgotten Herbalist?” Health Information & Libraries Journal 18 (3): 144–52. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-1842.2001.00330.x.
