Anna Frances Walker

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| birth_name = Anna Frances Walker

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1830|6|23}}

| birth_place = Concord, Colony of New South Wales

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1913|01|05|1830|6|23}}{{cite journal |author=Maroske, S. & Vaughan, A. |date=2014 |url=https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/documents/MuelleriaVol_32_-_p92_Maroske_and_Vaughan_Low_Res.pdf |title="Ferdinand Mueller's female plant collectors: a biographical register" |journal=Muelleria |volume=32 |pages=136, 171 |access-date=15 April 2020 |archive-date=26 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326172921/https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/documents/MuelleriaVol_32_-_p92_Maroske_and_Vaughan_Low_Res.pdf |url-status=dead }}

| death_place = Concord, New South Wales, Australia

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| occupation = writer, botanical collector, botanical illustrator

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Anna Frances Walker (1830–1913) was an early Australian botanical collector and plant illustrator.{{cite web |title=Walker, (Annie) Frances (1830 - 1913) |url=https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/walker-anna-frances.html|website=Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria Australian National Herbarium Biographical Notes |accessdate=15 April 2020}}{{cite book|author=Olsen, P.|title=Collecting Ladies Ferdinand von Mueller and women botanical artists|publisher=NLA Publishing|chapter=The genial floral artist: Anna Frances Walker (1830-1913)|pages=64–77}}

Life

She was born in 1830 at the family home "Rhodes" in Concord, New South Wales on the Parramatta River, one of a large family. In 1832, the family moved to Van Diemen's Land, where she, like her mother, collected and painted botanical subjects. At the age of 16 or 17, she returned to New South Wales to live with her grandmother, and there she was instructed in watercolour painting by Henry Curzon Allport. After the death of her father (1861), the family returned to the Sydney property, "Rhodes" (1870), where Annie remained for the rest of her life.

By August 1881, Anna had amassed a considerable body of work, and she contacted Ferdinand von Mueller in Melbourne, for help with identifications and advice about publishing. Eventually, in 1887, she self-published (Flowers of New South Wales{{Cite book|last=Walker|first=Miss, A. F.|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/201540879|title=Flowers of New South Wales|date=1887|publisher=Sydney : Turner & Henderson|language=English}}{{Cite web|url=http://collection.hht.net.au/firsthht/fullRecord.jsp?recnoListAttr=recnoList&recno=47806|title=Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection {{!}} Sydney Living Museums - Full Record: Flowers of New South Wales / painted and published by Miss A. F. Walker of Rhodes, Ryde, Parramatta River, N.S.W.|last=|first=|date=|website=collection.hht.net.au|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-04-15}}( (a small collection of her paintings), but the poor quality of the lithographs let her down (as did her text, which betrayed little botanical understanding). Plants illustrated were: Ceratopetalum gummiferum, Acacia spectabilis, Epacris longiflora, Zieria laevigata, Blandfordia nobilis, Darwinia fascicularis, Ricinocarpos pinifolius, Epacris microphylla, Sprengelia incarnata, Gompholobium grandiflorum, Bauera rubioides, Melaleuca linariifolia, Eriostemon silicifolius, Kennedia monophylla, Clematis glycinoides.

Ultimately, her collection consisted of some 1700 illustrations of plants from both Tasmania and New South Wales, painted between 1875 and 1910, but she failed to find a publisher, and sold her collection (eight volumes) to David Scott Mitchell for £70 in 1910.

The National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL) holds 19 specimens collected by her in New South Wales, and sent to Mueller between the years of 1892 and 1895. (Twenty-one letters from Mueller to Anna survive.)

The Australasian Virtual Herbarium lists seventeen specimens collected by "Walker, A.F.", all housed at MEL, of which fourteen are fungi and three are plants. Cortinarius walkeri, a fungus, is named for her, and the type specimen is [https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/43d928cf-ef10-4133-a3b4-9330f4bb6f8e MEL 0220681A], a specimen she collected.Cooke & Massee, {{cite journal|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48316467|title=Australian Fungi|author=Cooke, M.C.|date=1893|journal=Grevillea|volume=22|pages=36}}

Botanical drawings

Botanical drawings, ca. 1879 by A. F. Walker a5072003h.jpg

Botanical drawings, ca. 1879 by A. F. Walker a5072002h.jpg

Botanical drawings, ca. 1879 by A. F. Walker a5072001h.jpg

class="wikitable"

|year

|scientific Name

|Catalog Number

1892

|Piptoporus australiensis

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/2beb8d7b-a6c6-4502-8d1e-e852c28d3fa4 MEL 2015821A]

1893

|Boletellus emodensis

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/6e30be54-44e4-48ad-a058-b6b41ce06882 MEL 1053808A]

1893

|Clavaria fusiporius

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/653c70ec-0d39-4843-b231-4b3b44581d4d MEL 2069141A]

1893

|Clavaria spinulosa

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/1ad50b4a-f07b-480d-8555-15e9c4e937fd MEL 2070183A]

1893

|Cortinarius walkeri (Type specimen)

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/43d928cf-ef10-4133-a3b4-9330f4bb6f8e MEL 0220681A]

1893

|Elaeocarpus reticulatus

|Plantae

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/de7e7ab6-0a6f-42f1-aa4e-6de79c4cf68c MEL 2227350A]

1893

|Gymnopilus allantopus

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/74b60b8c-5b5a-4a4c-95e5-8570ff1a23b2 MEL 1052353A]

1893

|Hemigenia purpurea

|Plantae

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/3715c847-7964-4dd4-9b86-983f83d37e66 MEL 0646630A]

1893

|Lactarius eucalypti

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/31033a29-ae44-4d7a-bcf2-7f136f02563f MEL 1052538A]

1893

|Omphalotus nidiformis

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/3c9d9121-21a5-4c86-b460-810c130eaac0 MEL 1053918A]

1893

|Pleurotus australis

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/efefde7d-5a9b-4dfd-97b0-bbb84f83b961 MEL 1052555A]

1893

|Ramaria botrytis

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/f52d62f7-44d5-43bb-baf9-5214166eeaca MEL 1053748A]

1893

|Ramaria botrytis

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/e34668d5-8503-469b-aa71-49065941480d MEL 1053749A]

1893

|Russula clelandii

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/2d027721-f29f-4462-ad11-0f76ef7f8e12 MEL 1052583A]

1893

|Russula wollumbina

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/eecf5142-0672-4f82-957e-86bcd059d6e6 MEL 1052585A]

1893

|Russula wollumbina

|Fungi

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/18961c08-ed03-417e-9f54-8479da8256e7 MEL 1052584A]

1895

|Pomaderris ligustrina subsp. ligustrina

|Plantae

|[https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/44bcdac4-0228-4546-80aa-4f67acb00e5b MEL 0055293A]

Awards

In 1873, she was awarded a gold medal for watercolours of Tasmanian flowers at the London International Exhibition; in the Academy of Arts show of 1876, a certificate of merit; in the International Exhibition of 1879 (in Sydney), a "Highly Commended"; and at the Melbourne Exhibition of 1880, a first place.