{{short description|British botanist and botanical illustrator}} {{Use British English|date=August 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}} {{Infobox artist | name = Stella Ross-Craig | image = Stella Ross-Craig01.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1906|03|19}} | birth_place = Aldershot, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2006|2|6|1906|03|19}} | death_place = Isleworth, England | alma_mater = Chelsea Polytechnic | field = Botanical Illustration | training = | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = Kew International Medal (1999)<ref>{{cite press release|url=https://www.kew.org/about-our-organisation/press-media/press-releases/ethiopia%E2%80%99s-prof-sebsebe-demissew-awarded|title=Ethiopia's Prof. Sebsebe Demissew awarded prestigious Kew International Medal|publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703134412/https://www.kew.org/about-our-organisation/press-media/press-releases/ethiopia%E2%80%99s-prof-sebsebe-demissew-awarded|archive-date=3 July 2018}}</ref><br>Veitch Memorial Medal (2002) | spouse =Joseph Robert Sealy }} thumb thumb|{{center|''Chrysanthemum × rubellum'' by artists Lilian Snelling and Stella Ross-Craig, published in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1939}} '''Stella Ross-Craig''' (19 March 1906<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Stearn | first1 = William Thomas | authorlink1 = William T. Stearn | title = Botanical masters: plant portraits by contemporary artists | publisher=Prentice Hall Press | year = 1990 | accessdate =2 May 2011 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4FtQAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Stella+Ross-Craig%22 | isbn = 978-0-13-321902-9 | quote = The impressive record of Stella Ross-Craig (b. 1906), whose association with Kew began in 1929, brings to mind that of Walter ... Very appropriately the Royal Horticultural Society dedicated vol. 182 (1978–80) to Stella Ross-Craig and ...}}</ref> – 6 February 2006) was an English illustrator best known as a prolific illustrator of native flora.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3295079/A-monument-to-minutiae.html Steel Ross-Craign interviewed by John McEwen]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060323073037/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/09/db0902.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/02/09/ixportal.html Stella Ross-Craig obituary]</ref>
== Early life and education == Ross-Craig was born in Aldershot in 1906; her parents were Scottish and her father was a chemist. Interested in botany from her youth, she studied at the Thanet Art School and attended drawing classes at the Chelsea Polytechnic.<ref name="TelMinutiae" /><ref name="TelObit" />
==Career== In 1929, she began work as a botanical illustrator and taxonomist at Kew Gardens<ref name="TelMinutiae" /> and was a contributor to ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine'' and ''Icones Plantarum'' of William Jackson Hooker.<ref name="TimesObit" /> Her work drew the attention of Sir Edward Sailsbury, the director of Kew, who brought her to a publisher.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Stella Ross-Craig|url=https://issuu.com/kewguildjournal/docs/v15s111_-_2006|journal=The Journal of the Kew Guild2007|volume=15|pages=116–117|via=ISSUU}}</ref>
=== ''Drawings of British Plants'' === The first in Ross-Craig's series ''Drawings of British Plants'' was published in 1948.<ref name="TelMinutiae">{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3295079/A-monument-to-minutiae.html|title=A monument to minutiae|author=John McEwen|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=10 November 2001|accessdate=3 May 2011}}</ref> The series was issued as a set of inexpensive paperbacks retailing initially for 6 shillings,<ref name="scotsman">{{cite web|title=Stella Ross-Craig|date=10 February 2006|accessdate=3 May 2011|work=The Scotsman |location=UK|url=http://news.scotsman.com/obituaries/Stella-RossCraig.2749593.jp}}</ref> a departure from similar books for professionals and wealthy amateurs. The series eventually grew to 31 parts, taking until 1973 to complete and containing over 1300 lithographic plates.<ref name="PMarren">{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/stella-ross-craig-6108642.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/stella-ross-craig-6108642.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Obituary: Stella Ross-Craig |author-first1=Peter|author-last1=Marren|work=The Independent|date=20 February 2006|accessdate=22 May 2018}}</ref> The series contained all the British flowering plants except for the grasses and sedges.<ref name="TelObit">{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1509996/Stella-Ross-Craig.html|title=Stella Ross-Craig|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=9 February 2006|accessdate=3 May 2011}}</ref> She often drew from preserved dried specimens kept at Kew, and she worked in black and white.<ref name="WomenInScience">{{cite book | last1 = Blunt | first1 = Wilfrid Jasper Walter | authorlink1 = Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt | first2 = William Thomas | last2 = Stearn | authorlink2 = William T. Stearn | title = The art of botanical illustration: an illustrated history | publisher=Courier Dover Publications | year =1994| isbn = 978-0-486-27265-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1 = Haines | first1 = Catharine M. C. | title = International women in science: a biographical dictionary to 1950 | publisher=ABC-CLIO | year = 2001 | url = https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain | url-access = registration | page = [https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain/page/265 265] | accessdate =2 May 2011 | isbn = 978-1-57607-090-1 | quote = Stella Ross-Craig, an outstanding botanical artist, creates drawings that are both artistic and scientifically accurate.}}</ref>
===Honours and awards=== In 1999 Ross-Craig became only the sixth person to receive the Kew International Medal. In 2003, 55 of her originals were exhibited at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, when she was aged 95.<ref name="BuckmanVol2"/> The works were subsequently exhibited at the Kew Gardens Gallery the next year.<ref name="TimesObit">{{cite web|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article732017.ece|title=Stella Ross-Craig – Unrivalled botanical artist who made an elegant and authoritative record of Britain's flora|date=18 February 2006|accessdate=3 May 2011|work=The Times |location=UK}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Ross-Craig was a Fellow of the Linnean Society from 1948 to 1974.<ref name="WomenInScience" /> She was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Gold Veitch Memorial Medal in 2002.<ref name="PMarren"/> {{Botanist|Ross-Craig|Ross-Craig|border=0}}
==Personal life== She was married to the botanist, her colleague Joseph Robert Sealy,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Many Colours of Stella Ross-Craig |url=https://www.linnean.org/news/2024/03/13/stella-ross-craigs-paint-box |access-date=2024-03-18 |website=The Linnean Society |language=en|author-last1=Noltie|author-first1=Henry|date=13 March 2024}}</ref> whom she first met at Chelsea Polytechnic.<ref name="BuckmanVol2">{{cite book|author-first1=David|author-last1=Buckman|publisher=Art Dictionaries Ltd|year=2006|title=Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 2, M to Z |isbn=0-953260-95-X}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross-Craig, Stella}} Category:1906 births Category:2006 deaths Category:English illustrators Category:English taxonomists Category:British botanical illustrators Category:British women botanists Category:British women illustrators Category:Women taxonomists Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Category:Veitch Memorial Medal recipients Category:Artists from Aldershot Category:English people of Scottish descent Category:English garden writers Category:English nature writers Category:English non-fiction outdoors writers Category:20th-century British botanists Category:20th-century English painters Category:20th-century British women artists Category:Scientists from Aldershot Category:English women painters Category:20th-century British women biologists