19th-century plant cyanotype
19th-century plant cyanotype. Cyanotype of the brown seaweed Sargassum bacciferum, as produced by British botanist Anna Atkins (1799-1871). The cyanotype 'blueprinting' imaging technique was invented by British astronomer John Herschel (1792-1871). This cyanotype dates from around 1853, the period when Atkins produced 'Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants' (1854), published privately by Atkins as a gift to a friend.