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Nancy Adams: Botanist and artist

Nancy Adams (1926–2007) was one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most notable botanists and a talented artist. One of Te Papa’s most prolific botany collectors of all time, she also painted and drew an incredible number of botanical illustrations. She used her artwork to produce important books about Aotearoa New Zealand’s flora, including seaweeds, flowers, trees, and alpine plants.

  • A black and white photo of a woman in a white coat sitting at a desk and looking at the camera.

    Biography of Nancy M. Adams

    Nancy Adams was a botanist, botanical artist, and museum curator. Over the course of her life, she illustrated over 40 publications on Aotearoa New Zealand flora, many written by her. Her publications covered trees, plants, and flowers, but she eventually specialised in marine algae, helping to develop Te Papa’s seaweed collection.

  • A black hand-drawn illustration of coral and sea creatures shaped together a bit like an anatomical heart on a page of a book.

    Rediscovering Nancy Adams: The botanic artist who shaped national culture

    Art history research assistant Amy Holtman has helped rediscover Nancy Adams’ extensive work for the book An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, adding another layer to our understanding of Adams’ contributions to Aotearoa New Zealand’s culture and renewing our awareness of her impact on our cultural heritage.

  • A clump of daisies on a green shrub on the side of a mountain,

    Nancy Adams: A love of mountain flowers

    Lucia Adams and Margo Montes de Oca spent some time looking through several of Nancy Adams’ field guides which were published as part of the ‘Mobil New Zealand Nature Series’ – in particular, Mountain Flowers in New Zealand (1980) and New Zealand Native Trees (1967).

  • A hand-drawn architectural map of a garden space in front of a large building

    Nancy Adams: Botanist, artist… and landscaper

    Nancy Adams was a key player in the early decades of the Dominion Museum, making substantial curatorial contributions to collections spanning from colonial history to botany and producing illustrations, now a valuable part of the Te Papa Art collection Lucia Adams and Margo Montes de Oca discuss her influence and curatorial eye in Te Papa’s archives and in the outside world.

  • A slide image view of a rocky outcrop surrounded by an inlet.

    Nancy Adams on Rakiura Stewart Island

    Te Papa holds journals filled with field notes from Adams’ research, as well as a collection of original drawings and plates. Several of the sketches and field notes are from her trips to Rakiura Stewart Island in 1971 and 1972, and over summer, researchers Lucia Adams and Margo Montes de Oca decided to investigate these trips in detail.

  • watercolour of red-pink two-dimensional algae

    Seaweed sisters

    Aotearoa New Zealand’s extensive coastline is home to hugely diverse and luxuriant seaweed flora. Over the last 100 years, a significant number of women have contributed to the study of our macro-algae and showed a passion for the botanical world from an early age.

  • A watercolour of three views of a plant.

    A watery wonderland

    As a group of plants, macro-algae (or seaweeds) are little known and are often disregarded, but not by Nancy Adams.

    Of the 3322 specimens she collected for Te Papa’s herbarium, over two thirds – 2285 – are algae.

  • A sepia photo of a woman in a swimming costume sitting on a wet sandy beach.

    Following a Botany Legend: exploring the life of Nancy Adams

    As part of a summer research project, Lucia Adams and Annie Barnard have been working with Te Papa’s collection of Nancy Adams’ works, digitising botanical specimens, enriching catalogue records, and writing about her work and influence. They are taking a series of field trips to sites that were important in Nancy’s life and work. Here is the first in a series of blogs documenting these trips.

  • A woman sits at a desk and is painting flowers that are in a vase in front of her. She is in a white lab coat.

    At Nancy Adams’ Desk: Juvenilia and wildflowers

    As part of a summer research project, Lucia Adams from Botany and Annie Barnard from Art took a series of field trips to sites that were important in Nancy Adam’s life and work. Here is the third and final in a series of blogs documenting these trips.

  • Botanical collections and artworks by Nancy Adams

    She collected 3,321 botanical specimens for the Te Papa herbarium, and identified a staggering 6,874 additional specimens in the collection. Te Papa also holds a vast collection of paintings and drawings by Nancy Adams, as well as field notebooks, photographs, and other archival material. Explore Nancy Adams’ entire catalogue on Collections Online.

  • Watercolour painting of blue flowers on green stems

    Nancy Adams and Myosotis

    As well as painting, drawing and describing New Zealand flora, Nancy Adams also collected and identified botanical specimens – including Myosotis (forget-me-not).

  • An image of a black and white wood cut of a forest scene with jigsaw shapes missing from it.

    Jigsaw: Forest Scene

    Forest Scene, by Nancy Adams CBE. Purchased 2007.  CC BY 4.0. Te Papa (CA000888/027/0002)

  • Underside of a fern frond with brown seed pods

    Botany

    Te Papa’s botanical collections and research encompass marine algae (seaweeds), lichens, mosses, liverworts, lycophytes, ferns, and seed plants.