Album of American Wildflower Watercolors

Margaret Neilson Armstrong

1909–18 · Watercolor over graphite with brown ink · Drawings and Prints

This album contains seventy-three watercolors, forty-seven of which are reproduced in "Field Book of Western Wildflowers." Armstrong wrote the latter book in consultation with botany professor John James Thornber, and it was published in 1915 by G. P. Putnam's Sons. Drawings selected for publication were framed with graphite lines to indicate cropping. Near the bottom of most sheets, Armstrong noted where and when she found the flowers she drew (some inscriptions were trimmed when the group was bound). Thirteen drawings at the back of the album, inscribed "Hibernia" and dated 1911 or 1918, referring to a village in northeastern Florida where an uncle's house enabled the Armstrong family to escape New York winters.

Artist

Margaret Neilson Armstrong

Date

1909–18

Medium

Watercolor over graphite with brown ink

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Helena Bienstock, Cynthia MacKay Keegan and Frank E. Johnson, 2010