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Tag: Botanical illustration

For Camping Month: How to Share a Tent with a Smithsonian Secretary

"Mrs. Walcott sketching a wild flower in water colors on a frosty morning in camp."
“Mrs. Walcott sketching a wild flower in water colors on a frosty morning in camp.”

What are your plans for National Camping Month? Thinking of bringing along a sketchbook? You’d be in good company.

Mary Vaux Walcott (1860-1940) was undoubtedly a pro at camping. The naturalist and botanical illustrator spent the summers of her youth in the Canadian Rockies with her well-to-do family, where she became an active mountain climber, outdoorswooman, photographer, and started her first forays into botanical illustration. It was later in life, in her mid fifties, when she married the then current Secretary of the Smithsonian, Charles Doolittle Walcott, against the objections of her father.