Art in the service of agriculture: John Buchanan’s nature printing of ‘The Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand’

To disseminate new knowledge about scientific discoveries in New Zealand in the nineteenth century, draughtsmen were employed to convey the characteristics of a specimen using techniques of lithography, occasionally assisted by photography and microscopy. The Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute was an annual publication of scientific papers presented by experts at the various provincial branches throughout the country, and was first published in Wellington in 1868 and issued in 1869.1 Until his retirement from government service in 1885, it was primarily illustrated by John Buchanan (1819-1898). This paper aims to give a broader understanding of Buchanan’s significance for both New Zealand’s science history and its art history by considering his relationship to the emergent techniques of photography and lithography. His isolated use of nature printing for the production of the three volume guide to forage plants, The Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand, is placed in the context of the nineteenth century approach to scientific illustration as evidence.