Stella Ross-Craig (19 March 1906 – 6 February 2006) was an English

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

best known as a prolific illustrator of native

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

Early life and education

Ross-Craig was born in

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

in 1906; her parents were Scottish and her father was a chemist. Interested in botany from her youth, she studied at the Thanet Art School and attended drawing classes at the Chelsea Polytechnic.

Career

In 1929, she began work as a botanical illustrator and taxonomist at

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

and was a contributor to '' Curtis's Botanical Magazine'' and ''

Icones Plantarum ''Icones Plantarum'' is an extensive series of published volumes of botanical illustration, initiated by Sir William Jackson Hooker. The Latin name of the work means "Illustrations of Plants". The illustrations are drawn from herbarium specimens o ...

'' of

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

. Her work drew the attention of Sir Edward Sailsbury, the director of Kew, who brought her to a publisher.

''Drawings of British Plants''

The first in Ross-Craig's series ''Drawings of British Plants'' was published in 1948. The series was issued as a set of inexpensive paperbacks retailing initially for 6 shillings, a departure from similar books for professionals and wealthy amateurs. The series eventually grew to 31 parts, taking until 1973 to complete and containing over 1300 lithographic plates. The series contained all the British

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s except for the grasses and

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

s. She often drew from preserved dried specimens kept at Kew, and she worked in black and white.

Honours and awards

In 1999 Ross-Craig became only the sixth person to receive the Kew International Medal. In 2003, 55 of her originals were exhibited at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, when she was aged 95. The works were subsequently exhibited at the Kew Gardens Gallery the next year. Ross-Craig was a Fellow of the Linnean Society from 1948 to 1974. She was awarded the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

's Gold Veitch Memorial Medal in 2002.

Personal life

She was married to the botanist, her colleague Joseph Robert Sealy, whom she first met at Chelsea Polytechnic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross-Craig, Stella 1906 births 2006 deaths English botanists English illustrators English taxonomists Botanical illustrators Women botanists British women illustrators Women taxonomists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Veitch Memorial Medal recipients Artists from Aldershot English people of Scottish descent English garden writers English nature writers English non-fiction outdoors writers 20th-century British botanists 20th-century English painters 20th-century British women artists 20th-century British women scientists Scientists from Aldershot English women painters