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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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Nancy Adams, Wendy Nelson, and the Three Kings’ seaweeds

The Three Kings Islands are a hotspot for seaweed diversity – a fact recognised early on by Dominion Museum (Te Papa’s predecessor) Assistant Curator of Botany Nancy Adams.

Botany

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

Flora: Celebrating Our Botanical World

The magnificent plant world of Aotearoa New Zealand in art and object.