The Art Of Anne Ophelia Dowden

BIOGRAPHY
A
nne Ophelia Todd was born in Denver
and grew up in Boulder, CO. She spent
her early years roaming the foothills and
mesas of the Rocky Mountains. “I collected
and drew any living thing that came my way,
especially insects and flowers, and the study of
nature was my absorbing hobby.” *
Todd graduated with an
art degree from Carnegie
Institute of Technology (now
Carnegie Mellon). She moved
to New York City in 1930,
taught drawing for more than
15 years, and also worked as
a designer of wallpaper and
drapery fabrics. During that
time she married fellow artist
Ray Dowden.
Dowden entered the world of botanical
illustration in the early 1950s, when magazines
and journals began using her art work on
their covers and in their articles. She saw this
as a chance to combine her hobby and her
profession, and resigned from teaching in her
late 40s to go into botanical illustration full
time. She was in her 50s when she took the
steps to write, design and illustrate her first
book, Look at a Flower.
In the early 1900s, after 60 years in New
York City, Dowden moved back to Boulder to
be near family and her ‘beloved mountains’.
She set up her studio and published her last
book, Poisons in Our Path: Plants That Harm
and Heal, in1994, when she was 87 years old.
Dowden died in 2007 at the age of 99.
September 17, 1907
– January 11, 2007
“… among America’s
leading botanical artists of the
20th century, and probably
the most popular.”
– James White, curator of art and
principal research scholar, Hunt Institute
for Botanical Documentation
Andersen Horticultural Library
Courtesy of Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation.
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
January 18 – May 2, 2012
Creator/Curator: Lucienne Taylor
952-443-1400 · www.arboretum.umn.edu
*Dowden, A.O.T. Something about the author
Auto-biography Series. Vol.10. (Bloomfield Hills, MI:
Gale Research), 75.
Wild Green Things:
The Art of Anne Ophelia Dowden
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. A premier national arboretum, is part of the College of Food,
Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota. ©2011 Minnesota
Landscape Arboretum.
EXHIBIT LOCATIONS
REFERENCES
This exhibit has many stops. Look for
the numbered sunflowers 1-11 to see the
complete exhibit.
Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden Art Acquisition Fund. Retrieved
online 2/8/2011: http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/hibd/
HIBD-T/News-T.shtml
1. Oswald
Visitor
Center
Lobby
Anne Ophelia Dowden Collection. Hunt Institute for
Botanical Documentation. Retrieved online 2/8/2011: http://
huntbot.andrew.cmu/HIBD/Departments/Art/Dowden.shtml
-
Introduction
2. Skyway Ramp - Scanned illustrations
Botanical Illustrations by Anne Ophelia Dowden. An
Exhibition of Botanical Illustrations by Anne Ophelia Dowden.
17October 1965 – 15 May 1966. Hunt Botanical Library
(Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Institute of Technology)
3. Snyder Lobby - Artist information
4. Hallway
to
Library
-
Scanned
illustrations
5. Library Reception
Dowden, A.O. 1973 –
1998. Anne Ophelia Dowden
papers. Children’s Literature
Research Collection archives.
Elmer L. Andersen Library,
University of Minnesota:
Minneapolis, MN.
- Early life and
career
6. Library Main Room - Wild Green Things
7. Library Main Room - Look at a Flower
8. Library Main Room
- Rickett’s Wild
Flowers of the United States
9. Library Main Room - This Noble Harvest
Dowden, A.O. 1999.
“Herbal Art: Autobiographical
sketch of Anne Ophelia
Dowden.” The Herbarist #65
(Kirkland, OH: Herb Society
of America),46 – 49.
Dowden, A.O. 1990.
Something about the Author Autobiography Series, Vol.10
(Bloomfield Hills, MI: Gale Research)
10. Library Main Room
Genocchio, Benjamin. 2007. “Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden,
99, Artist, Dies.” Art & Design, The NYTimes, 1/16/2007.
Retrieved online.
11. Rare Book Room Display - original artwork,
Lamb, Ann. 1993 Herbal Art, The Art of Botanical
Illustrations. The Herbarist, 44.
- The Clover and the
Bee and Poisons in Our Path: Plants That
Harm and Heal
Wild Green Things
A full list of Anne Ophelia Dowden books is on our
website www.arboretum.umn.edu/library.aspx
Thank you to Karen Hoyle, Kathy Allen, Susan Moe,
Christine Aho, Renee Jensen, Sandy Seha-Luoma, and
Darren Terpstra. Also thank you to the Hunt Institute
for Botanical Documentation, and to Art Works for the
art materials on loan for the length of the exhibit.
Ligon, Linda. 1993. The Botanical Art of Anne Ophelia
Dowden. The Herb Companion. April/May 1993. Retrieved
online 2/8/2011: http://www.herbcompanion.com/print
article.aspx?id+5620
Materials utilized in this exhibit are from the Andersen
Horticultural Library, the Children’s Literature Research
Collection, and the Bio-Medical Library, all part of the
University of Minnesota Libraries.