Flowers of the Sea - Part 2

In comparison with the women featured in our previous post the compiler of the album included in the Sir C.M. Yonge collection was quite a latecomer on the scene. The album is inscribed with the name Annie Slade, but otherwise gives few clues to her identity. Her home “Simla” was in the south Devon coastal town of Paignton and her inscription indicates that she presented the album as a gift to her friends, Mr and Mrs Edmund Slatter, in 1884.

Given that Paignton also lies on the shores of Torbay, it is interesting to speculate whether her interest was sparked by the pioneering work of Amelia Griffiths and Mary Atkins which, as our earlier post reported, had been carried out for so many years right on her doorstep. Could she have visited Mary’s shop as a child or modelled her album on those Amelia produced? Certainly Annie’s album sounds remarkably similar to a recent description of the “slightly-battered leather-bound” Griffiths volume held in Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum, in which each sample is “mounted on stiff white paper and annotated with the name and location in … neat handwriting”

An album of pressed sewaweeds, compiled by Annie Slade. Part of the Sir C.M. Yonge Collection.

We may never know how the album was acquired by the late Sir Maurice Yonge but the renowned scientist spent several years as a student and researcher at the Plymouth marine science laboratory, not far from Torbay. Known to have had a passion for book collecting, it is easy to imagine this item catching his eye on a dusty shelf. Whatever its history, we are fortunate to have such a treasure among the many in Special Collections.

Annie’s album contains 35 seaweed specimens each one identified, in flowing handwriting, by its contemporary botanical name and place of collection. All but two were from Torbay, a popular holiday destination then and now. What is so remarkable about this, and similar albums from the period, is the way the specimens have retained their colour and clarity of detail after so many years

Ulva latissima, a specimen from an album of pressed seaweeds, compiled by Annie Slade (This album is part of the Sir C.M. Yonge Collection)

The process of preserving the specimens was painstaking but not difficult. It was outlined in detail by the American A.B Hervey in his 1881 book Sea Mosses: A Collector’s Guide. The equipment required was simple: pliers, scissors, wash bowls, blotting paper, cotton cloth and mounting cards. A stick with a needle inserted in one end was used to gently move and separate the various parts of the plant to display its finer details. Seaweed pressing had one key advantage over flower pressing: no fixative was needed to secure the specimen to its mounting board as “the gelatinous materials emitted from the plant itself” did the job. Annie’s album, where each specimen seems to be almost a part of the mounting paper, is proof of the enduring properties of this seaweed glue.

Delessaria sinuosa, a specimen from an album of pressed seaweeds, compiled by Annie Slade (This album is part of the Sir C.M. Yonge Collection)

What became of Annie Slade?
Research on Ancestry.com established her date of birth (1861) and her marriage to William Ainger within a few years of the album’s date. Four sons were born and having moved to the land-locked county of Surrey, with a family to look after, sea-weeding opportunities would have been rare. But perhaps she had imbued her sons with her love of the seashore: all spent their later years on the coast of south and south-west England.

And, you may ask, did Australian women take up this interest? Men certainly did. One album, compiled by Scottish migrant Charles Morrison, made headlines when purchased by the National Museum in 2013 for $3500. Another, in the Port Macquarie museum which dates from the 1860s, was compiled by British immigrant, Ernest Charles Davies. Evidence of women’s participation is harder to find. Perhaps the wealth of Australia’s new and strange flora provided more than enough beauty and adventure to satisfy the artistic and scientific interests of Australian women of the period and they sensibly decided to keep their feet dry.

Story by Miniata

Notes: 
- Captions to illustrations provide the scientific names current in the 1880s; they may not be those in use today. 
- The contribution of Judy Simon’s Ancestry.com research is gratefully acknowledged.

* Read more about the Sir C.M. Yonge Collection
** Browse the titles in the Sir C.M. Yonge Collection

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References

Smith, Bridie Time capsule: 19th century seaweed album preserves history of Port Philip Bay SMH 6/04/2017 https://www.smh.com.au/technology/flowers-of-the-sea-20170328-gv7wum.html

Donnelly, Catriona Seaweed album appeal. National Museum Australia 8/04/2017 (Charles Morrison, Ireland, Cape of Good Hope and, from 1854, Port Phillip Bay) http://www.nma.gov.au/about_us/news/articles/seaweed-album-appeal

Sommers, Debbie Seaweed album 1869 11/6/2014 ( Ernest Charles Davies, Port Macquarie 1869) https://ehive.com/collections/3977/objects/485177/seaweed-album