J.R.C. Death Cap Fungus (Amanita phalloides)

Fungi: 19th-century Mycology Drawings

This delightful sketch forms part of an intriguing collection of 19th-century illustrations depicting British fungi. The drawing likely dates from the early to mid-19th century, a time when the science of mycology was very much in its infancy—it was only in the second half of the century that mycology began to organise itself as a distinct discipline in Britain, and even then it was a science on the margins, with a strong amateur tradition. This drawing was almost certainly sketched from nature, evidenced by annotations on some of the drawings in the collection.

The status of the discipline of mycology at that time strongly suggests that these were drawn by someone with knowledge in the field; this could quite possibly be an amateur, but as a fringe discipline, it was these very amateurs who were the fungi experts. The artist initials are J.R.C. but their identity remains elusive. A number of the drawings in the collection have the species ascribed in pencil by what appears to be a later hand. The species are identified in Latin—often the names used are those of the French mycologist Jean Baptiste Francois Pierre Bulliard (1742–1793). In a number of cases the annotations are old names that have since changed; by tracing their taxonomy, it is likely that the species annotations date from around the 1880s, but the drawings themselves are earlier.

A compelling feature of this collection is how closely it resembles the work of leading British mycologists of the time, such as John Stevens Henslow (1796–1861), Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge, and James Sowerby (1757–1822), who published 'Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms'. This, and the taxonomic confusion over the species, seems to be a symptom of the discipline itself: expertise in the field was often more likely to be found in the general public, including amongst women, than in the universities and research institutions, and well into the 20th century species were being transferred genus and renamed as a result. Today mycology remains a relatively small and young discipline; only 6-8% of the world’s fungi have so far even been identified. The subject is, however, undergoing a cultural shift, with the growing recognition that fungi play a crucial role in our understanding of the planet and its future.