Seaweed written in blue light

A scientific specimen becomes a luminous photographic page.

Pale branching seaweed against deep cyan blue, with a handwritten label and the surviving page edge — Complete image · The Metropolitan Museum of ArtOpen full-resolution image

Look closer

Let your eye lead the way.

Trace the smallest branches against the blue ground.
Find the handwritten species label.
Look for the book edge before concentrating on a detail.

The story behind the object

A branching organism hangs in a field of blue. This is a cyanotype—a photographic image—not a botanical drawing painted blue. The fine silhouette and the handwritten name make looking and identifying feel like the same activity.

Keep looking beyond the specimen. The edge of the book page and the label are part of this particular surviving impression. They turn an apparently weightless image back into a physical page someone made and kept.

Original source & provenance

Institutional title: Dictyota atomaria
Maker / origin: Anna Atkins (British, 1799–1871)
Date: ca. 1853
Material: Cyanotype
Collection / accession: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 2005.100.557 (19)

This is the Met impression, dated ca. 1853. Dates from another institution’s separately catalogued copy should not be substituted.

View at the museum

Image & reproduction rights

The Met identifies this image as public domain under its Open Access CC0 programme. Collection research dated 2026-11-01. Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession 2005.100.557 (19).

The complete master is 3266 × 4000 pixels. The smaller display copies preserve the whole image; no invented detail has been added. This is not a print-quality promise, museum endorsement or worldwide clearance of non-copyright restrictions.

Met Open Access terms · Original museum image

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