Live History: Plants, Art and Survival in the 1700s

About the event

Step back into the eighteenth century and meet two extraordinary botanical artists whose lives were shaped by plants, art, and survival.

Elizabeth Blackwell

A pioneering artist, determined and resourceful, creating one of the first illustrated herbals by a woman. Her pen and brush not only recorded the healing power of plants but also fought to free her husband from prison.

Blackwell undertook the extraordinary task of drawing, engraving, and hand-colouring 500 plates of medicinal plants, many of them growing here at Chelsea Physic Garden.

John Tyley

Born free in Antigua and largely self-taught, Tyley became a skilled illustrator at the St Vincent Botanical Garden, the first botanic garden in the Caribbean. Employed by the superintendent Dr Alexander Anderson, he produced exquisite watercolours of tropical plants such as avocado, cashew, and breadfruit. His drawings, preserved today in the Linnean Society, remain vital records of the plants of the Caribbean.

Throughout the day these artists will appear in the Garden to share their stories. Discover the challenges of being a woman making her way in science, or a free man of colour working in a colonial world. Explore how their art gave lasting form to the plants that shaped medicine, trade, and empire.

Encounters and performances throughout the day around the Garden.