Stella Ross-Craig
Stella Ross-Craig (19 March 1906 – 6 February 2006) was an English illustrator best known as a prolific illustrator of native flora.
Also recorded as Ross-Craig · S. Ross-Craig · Stella Sealy · S. Sealy
Stella Ross-Craig
- Name
- Stella Ross-Craig
- Born
- 19 March 1906
- Birthplace
- Aldershot, England
- Died
- 6 February 2006
- Place of death
- Isleworth, England
- Education
- Chelsea Polytechnic
- Field
- Botanical Illustration
- Awards
- Kew International Medal (1999) Veitch Memorial Medal (2002)
- Spouse
- Joseph Robert Sealy
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Occupation
- botanical illustrator · botanist · scientific illustrator · painter · botanical collector · scientific collector
- Honours
- Veitch Memorial Medal · Kew International Medal
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wikidata · Q4815103 · wikipedia · Stella Ross-Craig
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Stella Ross-Craig • Born — 19 March 1906 • Birthplace — Aldershot, England • Died — 6 February 2006 • Place of death — Isleworth, England • Education — Chelsea Polytechnic • Field — Botanical Illustration • Awards — Kew International Medal (1999) Veitch Memorial Medal (2002) • Spouse — Joseph Robert Sealy • Illustration — Chrysanthemum × rubellum by artists Lilian Snelling and Stella Ross-Craig, published in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1939
Early life and education
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.
Career
Career
In 1929, she began work as a botanical illustrator and taxonomist at Kew Gardens and was a contributor to Curtis's Botanical Magazine and Icones Plantarum of William Jackson Hooker. Her work drew the attention of Sir Edward Sailsbury, the director of Kew, who brought her to a publisher.
Personal life
Personal life
She was married to the botanist, her colleague Joseph Robert Sealy, whom she first met at Chelsea Polytechnic.
Places
Named by the record
Places
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Aldershot.
Birth place
Isleworth.
Death place
Drawings of British Plants
The first in Ross-Craig's series Drawings of British Plants was published in 1948. The series was issued as a set of inexpensive paperbacks retailing initially for 6 shillings, 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. The series contained all the British flowering plants except for the grasses and sedges. She often drew from preserved dried specimens kept at Kew, and she worked in black and white.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Stella Ross-Craig”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q4815103: Stella Ross-Craig
General reference · Wikidata
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. The works were subsequently exhibited at the Kew Gardens Gallery the next year. Ross-Craig was a Fellow of the Linnean Society from 1948 to 1974. She was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Gold Veitch Memorial Medal in 2002.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Stella Ross-Craig, revision 1372587371 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Ethiopia's Prof. Sebsebe Demissew awarded prestigious Kew International Medal.
- 2.Stearn, William Thomas. Botanical masters: plant portraits by contemporary artists. Prentice Hall Press. 1990. 978-0-13-321902-9.
- 3.Steel Ross-Craign interviewed by John McEwen
- 4.Stella Ross-Craig obituary
- 5.Stella Ross-Craig. The Journal of the Kew Guild2007. 15. 116–117.
- 6.John McEwen. A monument to minutiae. The Daily Telegraph. 10 November 2001.
- 7.Stella Ross-Craig. The Scotsman. 10 February 2006.
- 8.Obituary: Stella Ross-Craig. The Independent. 20 February 2006.
- 9.Stella Ross-Craig. The Daily Telegraph. 9 February 2006.
- 10.Blunt, Wilfrid Jasper Walter. The art of botanical illustration: an illustrated history. Courier Dover Publications. 1994. 978-0-486-27265-8.
- 11.Haines, Catharine M. C. International women in science: a biographical dictionary to 1950. ABC-CLIO. 265. 2001. 978-1-57607-090-1.
- 12.Stella Ross-Craig – Unrivalled botanical artist who made an elegant and authoritative record of Britain's flora. The Times. September 2024.
- 13.The Many Colours of Stella Ross-Craig. The Linnean Society. 13 March 2024.
- 14.Art Dictionaries Ltd. Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 2, M to Z. 2006. 0-953260-95-X.
References
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References
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reference work
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General reference
People, houses and institutions
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People, houses and institutions
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Born at
1- AldershotPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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