Over 9000 Free Botanical Illustrations Made by Women

Enjoy this free collection that celebrates the work of female scientists throughout history

Women have contributed enormously to biodiversity research and the study of nature. They have collected specimens, researched new species, published books and catalogs, and drawn detailed scientific and botanical illustrations.

Women's contributions to science become more significant when considering the obstacles they have had to face throughout history. To honor their work, the Biodiversity Heritage Library compiled this album of female scientists' illustrations from the last three hundred years.

This collection is not–and does not pretend to be–exhaustive, but it's varied enough to serve as inspiration. And since most of the images are licensed in the public domain, you can use them for your own botanical drawings, collages, or even embroidery.

The collection also invites you to contribute to the list by adding tags of the different species and creators to be more accessible and useful to the public.

You can use tags to search by illustrator or species name, as well as add your favorite images to a virtual gallery. All of them can be downloaded in high resolution, and most include links to the books in which they were originally featured.

Learn about the work of these scientists, researchers, and illustrators who contributed to the history of botany, biology, and zoology in the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s collection on Flickr.

This gallery is a selection from the 200,000 illustrations that the Library made available to the public. You can read more about the complete collection here.

English version by @angeljimenez.

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