Sydenham Edwards

The Botanical Magazine or Flower Garden Displayed: White Cape–Coast Lily, 1806. Sydenham Edwards (British, 1768–1819).
Engraving, hand-colored. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. A. B. Leavelle, Stanford, Cal., in memory of her mother, Wilma Ball Morgan (Mrs. Daniel E. Morgan), 1955.142.

England was central to botanical concerns in the 18th century. For example, Kew Gardens was founded in 1721 and became a major institution for knowledge about plants from every continent. Interest in gardening led William Curtis to found the specialized magazine Botanical Magazine: or Flower Garden Displayed in 1787. Curtis aimed “to illustrate and describe the most ornamental flowering plants including information on their cultivation and illustrations drawn from living plants and colored as near to nature as the imperfection of color will admit.”