On a frosty morning at a camp in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, a woman in her sixties sat outside her open tent; a campfire kept the cold at bay, and with her brush she was painting a watercolour of a wildflower. A photograph from 1925 captures this scene, and it reveals more about Mary Vaux Walcott (1860-1940) than any studio portrait ever could: The studio of this American botanical watercolourist and naturalist was a tent camp; her subject was a freshly picked flower, which she had to paint before the colours faded.
Anyone who looks closely at her works will find this fieldwork preserved within them. ‘Western service tree Sorbus sambucifolia, 1918’ shows a twig full of orange-red berry clusters amongst finely serrated pinnate leaves; in the bottom right-hand corner, in her handwriting, is written ‘Vermilion Pass 9.15.1918’ - the place and date of the find, just as in a field notebook. ‘American chestnut, Castanea dentata, 1932’ depicts a spiny husk opening to reveal three glossy chestnuts. Against the light background, both twigs appear as though laid out for an identification guide.
This precision had a long history. Born on 31 July 1860 in Philadelphia, Mary Morris Vaux grew up as the eldest child of a wealthy, devout Quaker family. At the age of eight she was given a set of watercolours; at fourteen she painted ‘Untitled - Autumn Leaves, 1874’, a sheet featuring red and autumn-brown maple leaves on a slender twig, alongside which, in red lettering, are the initials ‘M.M.V.’ - Mary Morris Vaux, her maiden name. Following her mother’s death in 1880, she took charge of the household for her father and two brothers. In 1887, the family travelled west for the first time, covering some 10,000 miles by train, carriage, ferry and on horseback, as far as the Illecillewaet Glacier in the Canadian Selkirk Mountains. When the family returned years later, the ice had visibly receded, and their travel impressions gave rise to a series of measurements spanning decades - fixed points in the rock, rope lines, and steel plates painted red each year on the ice, which made it possible to track the retreat of the ice. These observations are regarded as Canada’s first formal glacier study. On 21 July 1900, ten days before her fortieth birthday, Mary Vaux climbed Mount Stephen with two Swiss mountain guides, the first documented ascent of a peak over 10,000 feet by a woman in Canada. Since 1908, a mountain in Jasper National Park has borne her name, named by her friend, the explorer Mary Schäffer Warren - one woman naming a mountain after another.
One summer, a botanist asked her to paint a rare flowering arnica; the result was so compelling that from then on she made a point of seeking out flowering species. On her mountain expeditions, she met Charles Doolittle Walcott, the palaeontologist at the helm of the Smithsonian Institution; in her letters, she addressed him as ‘Thou’ and ‘Thee’, using the archaic Quaker form of address. The two married in 1914; she was 54. From then on, the couple spent three to four months every summer at their camp in the Rockies: he searched for fossils, she painted wildflowers; over the decades, she produced more than 1,000 watercolours. From 1925 onwards, these were published as *North American Wild Flowers*, five volumes comprising 400 loose plates. The New York printer William Edwin Rudge applied layers of waterproof ink to heavy cotton paper and immersed the finished sheets in water until the fibres stood on end and the smooth printed surface once again took on the fine, rough texture of watercolour paper. She herself felt that the result was almost indistinguishable from a painted sheet, and the work earned her the nickname ‘Audubon of Botany’, after the great American bird painter Audubon.
She continued to paint right up until her final decade. ‘Wake-Robin Trillium simile, 1939’ was created when she was 78; the sheet depicts two white, three-petalled flowers beneath broad, strongly veined leaves, and the signature ‘M.V.W. 5.3.’39’ - now using the initials of her married name - indicates the date. She had celebrated her 75th birthday with a 20-mile horse ride, and spent her last summer in the Rockies at the age of 79. On 22 August 1940, Mary Vaux Walcott died whilst staying with friends in St Andrews, in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, shortly after her 80th birthday. Several hundred of her watercolours were later donated as a complete collection to the Smithsonian Institution.
The printers of 1925 were already aware that much depended on the paper for this artist; they dipped each sheet individually into a water bath. At Meisterdrucke, this task is now fulfilled by a very rough, pure-cotton handmade card, which is particularly well-suited to botanical illustrations and centrally positioned motifs; its open surface restores the fine grain of a watercolour to Walcott’s berry clusters and petals. A word of honesty is in order - on very dark areas, individual fibres may come loose; this is the nature of this paper, and we prefer to mention it in advance. For display on the wall, we therefore recommend framing behind glass, for the sake of the rough paper and the wildflower.
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1603645).jpg "Puccoon by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1607873).jpg "Slender Cotton-Grass (Eriophorum chamissonis) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Western Mountain Ash (Sorbus sambucifolia) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Prickly Currant, 1919 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Autumn Leaves by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Umbrella Tree Magnolia Tripetala by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Lodgepole Pine Pinus Contorta murrayana by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "American Chestnut Castanea dentata by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Flowering Dogwood Cornus florida, 1926 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Wake-Robin by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Pussy-ears, Calochortus elegans, 1923. by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Pussy-Toes, Antennaria racemosa, 1918. by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Beargrass, Xerophyllum tenax, 1924. by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Bog-Asphodel, Tofieldia intermedia, 1920. by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Gray Pussytoes Antennaria howellii, 1921. by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1602890).jpg "Buff Pussytoes (Antennaria luzuloides) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1602974).jpg "Pussy-Toes (Antennaria racemosa) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Pink Pussytoes, Antennaria rosea, 1916. by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1602697).jpg "Pussy-Ears (Calochortus elegans) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Untitled Mooring and Anchor, 1873. by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Douglas Honeysuckle Lonicera glaucescens by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1608903).jpg "Gray Pussytoes (Antennaria howellii) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Buff Pussytoes Antennaria luzuloides, 1917 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1592551).jpg "Pink Pussytoes (Antennaria rosea) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Untitled, Group of Flowers, 1883 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Wild Flax Linum lewisii, 1919 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1606420).jpg "Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Blue Lupine Lupinus argenteus by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1606418).jpg "Fritillary (Fritillaria biflora) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1602816).jpg "Sun Dial Lupine by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1602688).jpg "False Dandelion by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Butterfly Weed, 1935 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1605822).jpg "Wake-Robin by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1605822).jpg)
.jpg "Group of Flowers, 1881 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_(Dryas_drummondii)_-_(MeisterDrucke-1603229).jpg "Yellow Dryad (fruit) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_(Dryas_drummondii)_-_(MeisterDrucke-1603229).jpg)
.jpg "Yellow Lupine Lupinis arboreus, 1933 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1601044).jpg "Bottle Gentian by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Trumpet Creeper Bignonia radicans, 1926 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1602657).jpg "Wild Rose and Blue-eyed Grass by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Alpine Forget-me-not Myosotis alpestris, 1924 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Fritillary Fritillaria biflora, 1935 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1592739).jpg "Red Lily (Lilium Montanum) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Water Crowfoot (Batrachium trichophyllum) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Sun Dial Lupine Lupinus perennis by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1603626).jpg "Closed Gentian by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Silverberry Elaeagnus commutata, 1922 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1607398).jpg "Hairy Phlox (Phlox amoena) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "White Fairy Lantern by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Purple Saxifrage by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1604907).jpg "Ocotillo by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Dutchman")
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.jpg "Rocky Mountain Cassiope, 1924 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Dutchman")
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.jpg "Primrose Primula Angustifolia by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Scarlet Loco Astragalus coccineus by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1603362).jpg "Bristle-Cone Pine by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1603362).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1607024).jpg "Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1607024).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1605840).jpg "Douglas Fir by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1605840).jpg)
.jpg "Douglas Honeysuckle by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1608457).jpg "Lupine (Lupinus fornosus) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1608457).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1603856).jpg "Plume Anemone by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1603856).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1606654).jpg "Untitled (Autumn Leaves) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Downy Pinxter Bloom by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Columbine by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Purple Butterwort Pinguicula elatior, 1920 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Strawberry Bush-Hearts Bustin")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1605622).jpg "Death Valley Sage by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1605622).jpg)
.jpg "Lupine, 1935 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1606826).jpg "Alpine Forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Bottle Gentian Gentiana saponaria, 1905 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Arum Arrowhead Sagittaria cuneata by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Pygmy Androsace by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Yellow Violet Viola Orbiculata by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1603105).jpg "American Chestnut by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1601236).jpg "Bearberry by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "California Fuschia Zauschneria californica, 1936 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Woolly Arnica Arnica tomentosa, 1920 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Western Green Alder by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Fireweed by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Evergreen Saxifrage Leptarrhena Pyrolifolia, 1917 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1604288).jpg "Sand Myrtle by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1604288).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1606755).jpg "Swamp Azalea (Azalea viscosa) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Lake Louise Arnica Arnica louisiana, 1922 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Western Hemlock Tsuga heterophylla by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Water Lilies by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1606508).jpg "Devilsclub (Echinopanax horridum) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1601514).jpg "Northern Onion by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Spicebush by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1601583).jpg "Loblolly Pine by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Pyxie Pyxidanthera Barbulata, 1919 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1605168).jpg "Whitebark Pine by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Wild Pea Lathyrus Decaphyllus by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Sanifoiga adscendeus by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Queencup Clintonia uniflora by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1606051).jpg "Rosebud Orchid by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Rose-Bay Rhododendron Rhododendron carolinianum, 1932 by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1607276).jpg "Shadbush (Amelanchier oblongifolia) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1607276).jpg)
.jpg "Pacific Dogwood by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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.jpg "Squawroot Conopholis americana by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1604643).jpg "Red Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) by Mary Vaux Walcott")
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