Design and Art Australia Online

Mary Ann Armstrong née Newey (17 June 1838 – 2 July 1910), botanical fern artist, was the daughter of William and Margaret Newey of Birmingham, England. After the death of her mother, she emigrated with her father, brothers, and stepsister to Victoria in January 1853, arriving aboard the S.S. Wandsworth and eventually settling at the goldfields in Bendigo. On 11 February 1858 at Sandhurst she wed Charles Clark Armstrong (1835-1923), a coach runner and storekeeper who was also a native of Birmingham and who had arrived in Victoria on the S.S. Thorwaldsen in November 1852 (Daffey, pg 14). In the early 1860s, the couple relocated to New Zealand, most likely in search of more lucrative business opportunities. Shipping records indicate a “C Armstrong” arrived on the Oscar in December 1861, while Mary Ann arrived on the Western in March 1862 with William and Charles Clark, their two sons born in the Bendigo-Sandhurst region (Daffey, pg 24).


They resided in New Zealand for the next two decades, taking up a permanent residence in Dunedin, where their remaining eleven children were born. From 1862-78 the growing family rented a property in High Street (Daffey, pg 54). Newspaper records indicate that Charles Clark and his brother-in-law, Henry Newey, opened an establishment in 1863 in the Arcade where they were employed as “Fruiterers/ General Storekeepers” and “Dealers in Colonial Produce”. Charles Clark opened a second branch of the business in Oamaru in 1867 (North Otago Times, 20 December 1867). In addition, in 1864 he purchased the Star and Garter Hotel in Oamaru for 3,000 pounds in partnership with Henry Newey and Richard Payne (North Otago Times, 3 March 1864).


It appears that extensive refurbishments and remodelling of the hotel conducted in 1868 brought financial trouble and Charles Clark declared bankruptcy more than once over the next few years (Otago Witness, 4 September 1869 and 22 April 1871). It is likely that this would have been a difficult period for Mary Ann and the children, with a portion of Charles Clark’s revenue diverted to the creditors of the Star and Garter (Daffey, pg 28). In June 1878, he took over the license for the Union Hotel on Stafford Street, Dunedin (New Zealand Tablet, 21 June 1878). The family moved into the hotel and remained there until Charles Clark withdrew his application for the license in June 1884. At this time, they relocated to 'Fern Grove’, a private residence on the same street (Daffey, pg 54).


Afforded little leisure time due to work and family, Mary Ann nonetheless developed a keen interest in the collection and arrangement of fern specimens. Active from roughly the late 1870s to the 1890s, her body of work revolves around the artistic arrangement and scientific notation of ferns in albums and framed compositions, sometimes composed into decorative, collage-like landscapes. A label from a late 19th century album compiled by Mary Ann, entitled Ferns of Australasia, specifically designates her as a “botanic fern artist” suggesting that she considered herself a legitimate artist in her field.


Ornamental and handcrafted, her fern work reflects the domestic tradition of 19th century women’s decorative arts. In addition to botanical watercolours, miniature painting and needlework, natural objects such as ferns, seaweeds, shells, and seeds were arranged in decorative compositions and displayed in the parlour as emblems of taste and feminine accomplishment. Such creations featured regularly in the Ladies’ Courts of international exhibitions and in bazaars, where they were often sold to raise money for charity (Sear 2000).


Mary Ann’s botanical art, however, is distinct from this feminine tradition in that it was displayed alongside the work of men at a series of international and intercolonial exhibitions from 1879-89. Moreover, her work was unabashedly commercial: unlike the domestic arts which were largely created and displayed within the home, Mary Ann marketed and sold her fern compositions to the general public. As an entrepreneur, she relied upon the reputation she established through her commendable exhibition record.


One of her earliest known exhibition works is a small collection of dried New Zealand Ferns “in Natural Colours” which she displayed under her husband’s name in the horticulture department at the Sydney International Exhibition in 1879. Her submission received special commendation and is described as “artistically arranged” in the Official Record, a noteworthy report considering that other judicial commentary tended to focus on the scientific accuracy of the botanical exhibits (Richards 1881, pg 1008). At the Melbourne International Exhibition the following year, Mary Ann exhibited under her own name and was awarded a first order of merit for her “collection of Victorian wild flowers and New Zealand ferns, in natural colours” (Wanganui Herald, 21 March 1881).

She subsequently presented at the 'New Zealand International Exhibition’ in Christchurch, 1882, and again received favourable feedback from the judging committee:


“Mrs. C.C. Armstrong, of Dunedin, has some well-mounted ferns and flowers framed in various devices; some arranged to represent scenery with Helen’s babies playing about. She also shows photographs of New Zealand scenery, and of Maoris, mounted with ferns; and books of ferns and flowers, botanically named.” (Mosley 1882, pg lxx).


Given the apparent decorative nature of her entry, it is significant that she was included in the general New Zealand Court instead of being relegated to the women’s section. Nevertheless, it appears her work was difficult to categorise. Rather than wholly succumbing to decoration, a majority of Mary Ann’s compositions retained a strong scientific element that was firmly grounded in the systematic notation of each specimen. The classificatory fluctuation of her entries from horticulture to fancy goods at international exhibitions reflects this duality, indicating that her compositions straddled the divide between art and science.


This oscillating pattern continued at the 'Colonial and Indian Exhibition’ in London, 1886, where her submission was catalogued in the general “Fancy Articles” division (Clowes & Sons 1886, pg 59), and at the 'Centennial Exhibition’ in Melbourne, 1888, where her entry was once again shown with the “Flowers and Ornamental Plants.” This exhibition at Melbourne represents Mary Ann’s last known participation on the international exhibition circuit. Her “collection of 150 dried specimens of ferns, and ferns in presentation form” was awarded a bronze medal in addition to a first order of merit (Sands & McDougall 1890, pg 1061).


Outside the exhibitionary realm, Mary Ann developed a reputation by selling artistically arranged and botanically named fern fronds. The scientific accuracy and quality of her specimens appealed to amateur botanists, while their decorative arrangement attracted a genteel audience caught up in the fad of collecting natural history. The taste-decreed vogue for decoratively displayed shells, seaweeds, and ferns developed out of the tradition of grotto-work and its associations with Romanticism and the Gothic Revival. Ferns, in particular, gripped the imagination of the public, and Pteridomania, or fern mania, peaked around mid-century in Britain spreading to the colonies where it remained a firm fixture of visual culture through 1900. “Few” there are “who do not admire ferns,” wrote Louisa Atkinson in the Sydney Morning Herald (1863, pg 2), and by the turn of the century ferns had become a commonplace decorative device within both domestic and public spaces.


Providing a form of popular rational amusement that was intimately linked to scientific progress and colonisation, the collection and display of ferns held special significance for the colonies where the plethora of local species became a symbol of proto-nationalistic pride. The artist Nicholas Chevalier decreed that ferns were “emblematic of Australia,”(Bonyhady 2000, pg 104) and Eugene Von Guerard’s painting Ferntree Gully in the Dandenong Ranges, 1857, drew immense contemporary acclaim and featured at the Victorian Court at the London International Exhibition of 1862. By the late 1860s, tourist excursions to Ferntree Gully became a popular pastime for locals and visitors alike (Horne 2005, pg 263).


Mary Ann’s commercial fern work capitalised on the popular appeal of the fern as a tourist icon and nationalist symbol. While it is clear that her entrepreneurship arose out of her enthusiasm for ferns, it is also possible that the sale of her compositions supplemented the family income. Several copies of fern albums compiled by Mary Ann in the mid-to-late 1880s exist in public institutions and private collections. Entitled New Zealand Ferns, they typically bear a printed label inside the front or back cover stating that the enclosed specimens were “Mounted and Botanically Named by Mrs. C.C. Armstrong, Dunedin.”


These albums contain eight pages of pressed specimens accompanied by their Latin names delineated in a bold, handwritten script. The specimens are generally grouped three to a page and are artistically arranged in a fluid, non-linear manner, often connected to each other by a central sphere composed of dried moss. The decorative sensibilities of this display technique create a sense of alluded landscape and, in doing so, contrast with the emerging scientific aesthetic of the period which emphasized the isolation and standardised representation of specimens.


By the mid-1880s it appears that Mary Ann had established a reputation within the industry and was selling her work at local booksellers and dealers in fancy goods. For instance, a notice for W. Fraser, Watchmaker and Jeweller, Gisborne, advertises a collection of pressed ferns “by Mrs. Armstrong of Dunedin, whose name is a household word in the Colonies” (Poverty Bay Herald, 12 November 1885). While inventory records describing the stock and sale of such items have not yet been located, it is evident that in addition to albums, Mary Ann’s fern work included decorative stationery. The Hocken Library in Dunedin, for example, contains a set entitled The New Zealand Native Fern, A Novelty for Friends at Home and Abroad, which consists of notepaper with ornamental monograms composed of arranged fern leaves.


Furthermore, it is also recorded that she “earned pin money” by making post cards consisting of “pressed ferns transferred to paper” (Malone, pg 3). Such items would have catered to the tourist market as suggested in an advertisement for the retailer Adams on Gladstone Road, Gisborne in 1884:


“FERNS! FERNS! FERNS!
To the admirers of the Beautiful in Nature, and all those who are desirous of sending to their Home friends a really Beautiful and Suitable Present!!
Just arrived, a Choice Assortment of
BEAUTIFUL FERNS,
ARRANGED
by Mrs. C.C. Armstrong, of Dunedin, who has gained Prizes at the Sydney, Paris, Dunedin and Christchurch Exhibitions.
These FERNS ARE ARRANGED IN BOOKS, and BOTANICALLY NAMED in albums and in Photo Frames.” (Poverty Bay Herald, 29 March 1884).


Despite the apparent success of her fern work in Dunedin, in 1887 Mary Ann and her husband as well as a number of their children moved back to Australia where they settled in rented accommodation in Melbourne. It appears that the family was still somewhat burdened financially; Charles Clark’s main source of income was from a second-hand stall at the Victoria Market and Mary Ann was required to take in a number of gentlemen boarders (Malone, pg 3). She continued her fern work during this period, relying upon specimens imported from New Zealand by her son Charles Clark, Jr, who had remained in Dunedin and had developed an interest in ferns from his mother:


“An export from Gisborne that is noteworthy is that of fernery. For a long time past Mr C. Armstrong has been engaged gathering and shipping ferns to Victoria, where they find a ready market. During the last quarter Mr Armstrong shipped ferns hence to Australia valued at L110” (Poverty Bay Herald, 1 October 1889).


Prompted by the success of the fern industry, Mary Ann embarked upon a new commercial project involving the production of a series of professionally published albums on the ferns of Australasia. Entitled The South Pacific Fern Album, the project was very much a family affair, driven by Mary Ann. Charles Clark, Jr. was responsible for the collection and exportation of fern specimens from New Zealand to Melbourne, while Mary Ann’s son-in-law, Jeremiah Twomey, a journalist and publisher, was largely responsible for the editing, printing, and marketing of the album. Furthermore, according to Daffey, Mary Ann established “The New Zealand Fern Company” with Twomey in order to create a professional arena in which to promote and sell the album (pg 57).


At the time of its production, The South Pacific Fern Album garnered a fair amount of publicity both in Australia and New Zealand, as revealed in an article from the Melbourne Argus that was reprinted in several New Zealand newspapers:


“A project which deserves encouragement is the gathering of the different varieties of ferns of Australasia and New Zealand in a systematic manner in order to place interesting collections upon the markets. The work has been taken in hand by the New Zealand Fern Company, who have secured the services of Mrs. C.C. Armstrong, formerly of Dunedin, for the preparation and arrangement of samples, and also a staff of fern-gatherers, who are at present in Auckland, New Zealand, where there are extensive fern districts. The company intend [sic] to devote their attention principally to the issue of the 'South Pacific Fern Album’, which, in addition to a complete collection of the ferns, will contain descriptions of the ferns and the localities in which they are to be found, as well as illustrations by means of the photolithographic process.” (The Otago Witness, 31 October 1889).


Published in approximately 1889, this lavish album displays a particularly rich example of late 19th-century visual culture characterised by a sophisticated aesthetic vocabulary that merges art, science, and media. Combining handmade imagery with print technology and industrial production, the album is divided into three parts, the first two of which encompass the letterpress section, overseen by Jeremiah Twomey, and the third of which is dedicated to pressed fern specimens compiled, arranged, and scientifically labelled by Mary Ann.


Intended “for those who admire the beauty of nature’s productions than for those skilled in botany,” the album targeted a popular audience as is reflected in the language and subject matter of its text (pg 1). Divided into two principal sections, Part I contains general information for the lay reader on ferns and their specific localities within New Zealand, their economic and medicinal properties, their role in local and historical folklore, as well as a detailed history of their collection, with a prominent section devoted to indigenous culture and customs. Part II is more concise and is devoted to the “Description, distribution, and full particulars of each genus and species” of New Zealand ferns (Part II Index).


The language used, particularly in Part I, is that of the picturesque: the text leads the reader through a perambulating visual landscape, following the route of “the tourist – whose path would generally be that of the botanist.” (pg 16). This form of armchair travel is enhanced by the inclusion of several photolithographs of ferns and general New Zealand scenery, some of which are presumably based on photographs taken by Charles Clark, Jr., an avid photographer (Daffey, pg 57). In addition to supplementing the picturesque text, the integration of such images contributes to a scrapbook aesthetic that governs the visual language of the print section, and to a certain extent, of the album as a whole. Interspersed with various anecdotal episodes and snippets of poetry devoted to ferns, the illustrations are arranged on the page to create a collage-like effect that emulates the personalised nature of handmade scrapbooks from the period.


This aesthetic is further realised in the final section of the album which features Mary Ann’s decorative arrangements of pressed fern specimens, the configuration of which more closely resembles the layout of a presentation scrapbook than that of a scientific reference book. The fern plates are devoid of text or illustration, with the exception of simple, cut-out labels bearing the Latin name of each represented species. The arrangements are indicative of Mary Ann’s earlier album compositions, revealing a combination of different specimens on a single, blank page, and are assembled in a flowering, sometimes gently overlapping, organic fashion which references the plant in nature.


In addition, they feature the use of decorative framing and anchoring devices. Certain plates display borders composed of long slender ferns, and throughout, Mary Ann has employed delicate roundels of dried moss to create an artificial base for the specimens that not only anchors them to the page, but also creates the illusion of soil and earth. Moreover, as an ornamental flourish, she has occasionally placed diminutive fern bouquets around central specimens. It is clear that such groupings are meant to be solely decorative in nature as they lack scientific labels.


In addition to these specimen plates, a number of copies of The South Pacific Fern Album also contain decorated printed illustrations. The Sydney Herbarium edition, for example, features two hand-coloured lithographs of unidentified local scenery that have been enclosed in collage-like fern borders created by Mary Ann (illus. Stacey and Hay 2000, pg 144). The juxtaposition of specimens with images of landscapes from whence they potentially originated reflects a multifaceted sense of vision that embraces the particular and the general, the rational and the romantic, while providing an interesting example of the intersection of industry and craft.


As a hybrid creation combining industrial production with artistic personalisation, the album can be attributed to a small genre of mid-to-late 19th-century natural history gift albums. According to Roger Butler, such “giftbooks” were luxurious affairs, “printed in lithography, and often self-published or subsidized” (2007, pg 195). Carol Armstrong (of no relation to Mary Ann) has also shown how such works were characterised by a strong handmade and ornamental component, citing Anna Atkins’ Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns, 1854, as the archetypal gift album model (pg 157). Costly and time-consuming to make, such albums were necessarily produced in limited numbers and typically operated within a culture of gift giving and exchange.

The South Pacific Fern Album clearly belongs to this category: its production was mainly a familial enterprise and, as was common with other gift albums of the era, it demonstrates a subtle blend of science and art, in which aesthetic value is given equal status to scientific import. Moreover, in terms of its arrangement, it combines professionally produced lithography and letterpress with hand-assembled specimen plates, the incorporation of which transforms the album into a lavish commercial scrapbook that retains an air of personalisation and uniqueness. Finally, there is evidence that it operated within a culture of exchange: the Sydney Herbarium copy contains an inscription which states that the album was given as “a token of esteem to E. Dixon from his sincere friend Mina Ellis 6 November 1895”.


Given the popularity and pervasiveness of the natural history movement, numerous gift albums specifically devoted to New Zealand ferns were produced in the colonies, the most notable of which are those compiled by Thomas Cranwell and Eric Craig who were active in Auckland in the late 1870s and 1880s. Like The South Pacific Fern Album, their albums combine commercialisation and artistry, displaying the professional labels of their makers and featuring decoratively arranged pressed fronds in juxtaposed groupings that are anchored to the page by tufts of moss.


Time-intensive and laborious to make, the creation of such albums was a mammoth project. As stated in the introduction of The South Pacific Fern Album: “The collection of the immense quantity of ferns required for the production of these Albums entailed much expense and trouble” (pg 13). Moreover, the preservation and arrangement of the fronds would have been a difficult and finicky process. Professor George Thomson, the author of The Ferns and Fern Allies of New Zealand, 1882, is quoted in the album as stating:


“Mrs. Armstrong has overcome the difficulty of preserving those ferns, so as to make them retain all their native freshness and beauty. I have seen specimens of her work which would only require the dew upon the fronds to convince one that they had just been gathered from their native haunts though they were at the time thousands of miles away from where they had been gathered.” (pg 9).


Regardless of her skill, it is unlikely that Mary Ann alone could have compiled a large number of the albums. Nevertheless, numerous copies are held in public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, The United Kingdom, and North America, suggesting that a fair number indeed were published. Moreover, sales advertisements indicate that it was available both in the colonies and in Britain. The publishing firm of Sampson, Low, Marston & Co, Limited in London, for instance, lists the album in both its 1894 and 1895 catalogue for 63 shillings, a reasonably expensive sum (Groom 1895, pg 1).


There is little information on Mary Ann’s artistic output after the publication of The South Pacific Fern Album. It appears that she continued to engage in fern work to a certain extent in Melbourne, compiling an album entitled Ferns of Australasia, c.1900. Despite her prolific collection and production over a twenty-year period, there is no evidence of Mary Ann discovering any new species. However, she did potentially contribute to an increase in knowledge on the particulars of existing species. For example, the description of Phyloglossum Drummondii in the album maintains that the fern “grows in the Northern Island in grassy places and clayey banks” and that “Mrs. Armstrong has [also] found it in the Canterbury districts” of the South Island (pg 7).


In 1904, Mary Ann travelled with her husband to West Australia to care for some of their grandchildren after the sudden death of their daughter, Nellie. They eventually returned to the Melbourne area and settled with their daughter Jennie’s family. According to Malone “they brought little but Ma’s parrot in a cage and their personal belongings in two suitcases” (pg 1). This family recollection perhaps best encapsulates Mary Ann’s life as a woman of supreme common sense who did not believe greatly in personal wealth. On 2 July 1910, Mary Ann passed away in Flemington, her later years marred by a slight stroke (Malone, pg 4). She is buried in Melbourne General Cemetery where her headstone, inscribed with decorative fronds, reflects her passion for ferns (Daffey).


Mary Ann’s son, Charles Clark, Jr., carried on the family fern enterprise. In 1895 he established a photography studio in Dunedin where he also engaged in fern work. The Cyclopaedia of New Zealand: Otago & Southland Provincial Districts, 1905, lists him as a “fern artist and photographer” who specialised in “artificial fern work, the different varieties being artistically arranged and reproduced on panels, brackets, and articles of furniture, as well as in album form (Cyclopaedia online). While the natural history craze for ferns was on the decline by 1900, it was replaced by the ascendency of the fern as the emblem of New Zealand.

Writers:

Duggins, Molly

Date written:

2009

Last updated:

2011

Status:

peer-reviewed