BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Smithsonian Gardens & USBG -- Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women @ Donald Reynolds Center

DC -- Smithsonian Gardens & USBG -- Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women @ Donald Reynolds Center:

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Description of Pictures: Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women
January 29, 2022 – April 24, 2022
Escape the winter cold and step into a floral oasis in the Kogod Courtyard with Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women. The exhibition highlights unsung horticultural heroines and solidifies their ongoing influence on orchid collections.
Visitors can see several hundred varieties of orchids alongside stories of women’s history in the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, which is shared by SAAM and the National Portrait Gallery. This exhibition was organized by Smithsonian Gardens in collaboration with the United States Botanic Garden and features the living collections from both organizations.
Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women unearths stories of women who have enriched our understanding and appreciation of orchids. Despite their remarkable achievements in art, botanical illustration, orchid cultivation, and scientific discovery, many of the featured women have not received the recognition they deserve.
Support for Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women was provided by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. ORCHID_220225_005.JPG: Botanical Art and Illustration Blanche Ames Artist and Activist American artist Blanche Ames (1878–1969) was one of the foremost botanical illustrators of her time. For 50 years, she traveled the world with her husband, renowned orchidologist Oakes Ames, documenting rare orchids with her detailed pen-and-ink drawings. A free-spoken feminist, Ames campaigned tirelessly for women's suffrage and reproductive rights. Marianne North Intrepid Explorer British botanical artist Marianne North (1830–1890) defied convention by traveling independently to remote regions of the world, where she recorded rare plants with her paintbrush. Her supporters included naturalist Charles Darwin. Today, more than 800 of her paintings cover the walls of the Marianne North Gallery at London’s Kew Gardens.
2. ORCHID_220225_021.JPG: Botanical Art and Illustration Regina Hughes Unstoppable Illustrator Regina Hughes (1895–1993) studied art at Washington, D.C.’s Gallaudet University for the deaf. She worked as a botanical illustrator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for nearly 40 years. After retiring from USDA, Hughes volunteered at the Smithsonian, where she continued to illustrate plant specimens, including many orchids, until the age of 95. Margaret Mee Rainforest Conservationist British botanical artist Margaret Mee (1909–1988) spent more than 30 years studying and painting the tropical plants of the Amazon rainforest, including several species previously unknown to science. A passionate environmentalist, Mee was one of the first people to speak out about the damage caused to the rainforest by illegal mining and logging.
3. ORCHID_220225_035.JPG: I loved how they decorated the columns like that.
4. ORCHID_220225_068.JPG: Orchid Hybridization What Is an Orchid Hybrid? An orchid hybrid is the result of cross- pollinating two orchids to create a new variety. Orchid growers hybridize orchids for specific traits, including flower form, color, size, fragrance, and longevity. How Do You Make an Orchid Hybrid? To make an orchid hybrid, orchid growers select two parent orchids with specific traits they want to combine. Only certain varieties of orchids can be crossed successfully. Using a toothpick, the orchid grower takes the pollen from one parent and uses it to pollinate the other parent. If the cross- pollination is successful, the result is a hybrid with both traits. With tens of thousands of orchids to choose from, the possibilities are virtually endless.
5. ORCHID_220225_075.JPG: Orchids Named in Honor of Women This planter features orchids named in honor of women. The National Portrait Gallery’s collection includes portraits of many of these women. Introducing the Mary Vaux Walcott Orchid Smithsonian Gardens has named a new orchid hybrid in honor of artist and naturalist Mary Vaux Walcott.
6. ORCHID_220225_149.JPG: Mary Vaux Walcott The Audubon of Botany American artist and naturalist Mary Vaux Walcott (1860–1940) developed a passion for the natural world on summer trips to the Canadian Rockies, where she hunted for rare specimens of wildflowers, including orchids. During her lifetime, Walcott painted hundreds of watercolor studies of native flowers, including many orchids. Today, her paintings are in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. North American Wildflowers Between 1925 and 1929, the Smithsonian Institution published 400 of Walcott’s illustrations in a five-volume edition titled North American Wildflowers. The book established a new printing technique known as the Smithsonian Process, which was said to have produced the “most faithful color reproduction” of its day.
7. ORCHID_220225_154.JPG: Mary Vaux Walcott The Audubon of Botany American artist and naturalist Mary Vaux Walcott was known for her beautiful and scientifically accurate paintings of flowers. When she found a rare specimen, she often painted on site, working for up to 17 hours to capture the delicate blossoms before they withered and lost their color. Mary Vaux Walcott was compared to John James Audubon, a famous ornithologist who documented the birds of North America.
8. ORCHID_220225_168.JPG: Orchids Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women Barrier-breaking botanists. Cutting-edge conservationists. Inspired illustrators. Women have played many roles in the quest to discover, document, and conserve orchids. Women have discovered and described new orchid species, developed new orchid hybrids, protected orchid habitats, and created breathtaking artworks inspired by orchids. Despite their achievements, many of these women have not received the recognition they deserve. Yet their scientific and artistic contributions have enriched our understanding and appreciation of these remarkable plants. In support of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, this exhibition reveals the hidden stories of these unsung heroines.
9. ORCHID_220225_187.JPG: Orchids Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women
10. ORCHID_220225_217.JPG: Botanical Art and Illustration A Woman’s Work Botanical art and illustration provided women with a path into the scientific world at a time when there were few female scientists. Women who had the talent, opportunity, and means became professional botanical artists and illustrators. Although they were often overlooked and underappreciated in their field, women made lasting contributions to our understanding of botany. Sarah Drake Prolific Plant Painter British botanical artist Sarah Drake (1803–1857) specialized in painting orchids. She illustrated several books, including The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, which has been called “the finest orchid book ever issued.” The Australian orchid genus Drakaea is named in her honor.
11. ORCHID_220225_230.JPG: Botanical Art and Illustration Picturing Plants People have been drawing plants for thousands of years. Early botanical drawings were used for medicinal purposes to distinguish safe plants from poisonous ones. Botanical illustration entered its golden age during the Enlightenment in the 1600s and 1700s. Illustrators accompanied explorers on epic voyages around the world, documenting newly discovered plants through drawings and paintings. Despite advances in photography, botanical illustrations are still used today to highlight specific details in a way that photographs cannot. Art vs. Illustration Botanical art and botanical illustration are terms used to refer to drawings of plants. Botanical illustration emphasizes scientific accuracy while botanical art emphasizes artistic expression.
12. ORCHID_220225_249.JPG: Collecting Orchids Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection Since it was established in the 1970s, the Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection has grown to more than 6,000 specimens from all over the world. Collections like these are valuable resources for education, research, and conservation. They protect species from threats, such as habitat change and over-collecting, and can be used to reintroduce and restore orchid species in the wild. Sarah Hedean Living Collections Manager Sarah Hedean is the Living Collections Manager for Smithsonian Gardens’ Collections, Education, and Access department. She began her career at the Smithsonian in 2006 as an orchid horticulturist. Thanks to her work, the Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection became the first Nationally Accredited Orchid Collection in North America.
13. ORCHID_220225_259.JPG: Collecting Orchids Orchidelirium In the 1800s, wealthy Europeans and Americans went wild for orchids in a craze that became known as “orchidelirium.” Collectors traveled the world, racing to acquire rare orchids to fill their greenhouses with exquisite blooms. In the 1900s, orchid cultivators engineered new hybrids to meet the changing tastes of consumers, creating fast-growing, vigorous plants with multiple blooms in a wide range of colors. Rebecca Northen The Julia Child of Orchids American biologist Rebecca Northen (1910–2004) traveled the world studying and collecting orchids. Her 1950 book, Home Orchid Growing, did for orchid growing what Julia Child did for French cooking: demystifying it for a general audience. Seventy years later, it is still one of the best- known reference books on how to cultivate orchids.
14. ORCHID_220225_260.JPG: In 1881, railroad magnate Jay Gould and his wife, Helen, built a 380-foot-long greenhouse at their Hudson River estate of Lyndhurst to house their impressive collection of orchids. Courtesy Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Richard Marchand Historical Postcard Collection
15. ORCHID_220225_265.JPG: The Science of Orchids Hanna Bogna Margońska Trailblazing Taxonomist Polish botanist Hanna Bogna Margońska is known for her work in orchid taxonomy—the science of naming, describing, and classifying orchids. A prolific scientific writer, Margońska has authored or coauthored descriptions of nearly 500 orchids, mainly in Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific, and Australia. Melissa McCormick Smithsonian Scientist Melissa McCormick is an ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, and a founding member of the North American Orchid Conservation Center. She specializes in studying the symbiotic relationships between mycorrhizal fungi and orchids.
16. ORCHID_220225_271.JPG: The Science of Orchids Orchidology Orchidology is the scientific study of orchids. Orchidologists study all aspects of these plants, including their physical forms and structures, genetics, pollination, and scientific classification. Edith Coleman Pollination Pioneer Australian naturalist Edith Coleman (1874–1951) made a groundbreaking discovery about orchid pollination. After observing wasps entering certain species of orchids, she found that the orchids mimicked the shape of female wasps to entice male wasps to pollinate them. Her discovery revolutionized the field of orchid pollination.
17. ORCHID_220225_293.JPG: Art Inspired by Orchids Orchids have inspired female artists throughout history and across cultures. Orchids in Chinese Art Orchids have a long history in Chinese art. Cymbidiums, also known as boat orchids, have been cultivated in China for hundreds of years. They became a popular subject for Chinese artists starting in the Song dynasty (960–1279). Gu Mei Poet and Painter Chinese courtesan Gu Mei (1619–1664) defied traditional gender barriers to become a respected poet and painter. She was famous for her paintings of orchids, which are featured in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.
18. ORCHID_220225_320.JPG: Art Inspired by Orchids Georgia O’Keeffe American Modernist Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) was a leader of American Modernism who paved the way for other female artists. Flowers are a common theme in her art. She painted many species, including calla lilies, irises, petunias, poppies,and orchids. "When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else." — Georgia O’Keeffe The Feminist Art Movement In the 1970s, feminist artists and activists influenced by Georgia O’Keeffe adopted the orchid as a symbol of female empowerment and sexuality.
19. ORCHID_220225_324.JPG: "When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else." — Georgia O’Keeffe
20. ORCHID_220225_340.JPG: Art Inspired By Orchids Debora Moore Glassblowing Sculptor American artist Debora Moore is known for her intricate, colorful glass sculptures, which combine traditional glassblowing skills with new techniques. Many of her sculptures depict orchids, which Moore describes as “a metaphor of the human condition in its tenuous and essential relationship with the earth.”
21. ORCHID_220225_341.JPG: Moore has been making glass sculptures of orchids and other plants for over 30 years.
22. ORCHID_220225_380.JPG: Orchids Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women
23. ORCHID_220226_334.JPG: Orchids Named in Honor of Women This planter features orchids named in honor of women. The National Portrait Gallery’s collection includes portraits of many of these women. Introducing the Mary Vaux Walcott Orchid Smithsonian Gardens has named a new orchid hybrid in honor of artist and naturalist Mary Vaux Walcott.
24. ORCHID_220226_520.JPG: Orchids Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women Barrier-breaking botanists. Cutting-edge conservationists. Inspired illustrators. Women have played many roles in the quest to discover, document, and conserve orchids. Women have discovered and described new orchid species, developed new orchid hybrids, protected orchid habitats, and created breathtaking artworks inspired by orchids. Despite their achievements, many of these women have not received the recognition they deserve. Yet their scientific and artistic contributions have enriched our understanding and appreciation of these remarkable plants. In support of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, this exhibition reveals the hidden stories of these unsung heroines.
25. ORCHID_220226_549.JPG: Botanical Art and Illustration A Woman’s Work Botanical art and illustration provided women with a path into the scientific world at a time when there were few female scientists. Women who had the talent, opportunity, and means became professional botanical artists and illustrators. Although they were often overlooked and underappreciated in their field, women made lasting contributions to our understanding of botany. Sarah Drake Prolific Plant Painter British botanical artist Sarah Drake (1803–1857) specialized in painting orchids. She illustrated several books, including The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, which has been called “the finest orchid book ever issued.” The Australian orchid genus Drakaea is named in her honor.
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