Orra White Hitchcock

Orra White Hitchcock
(John L. Lovell, ca. 1860; courtesy of the Jones Library, Amherst, Mass.)
Born	March 8, 1796 South Amherst, Mass.
Died	May 26, 1863 (aged 67) Amherst, Mass.
Nationality	United States
Known for	Botanical and scientific illustration; geological landscapes; lecture illustrations.
Spouse(s)	Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864; geologist)

Orra White Hitchcock (March 8, 1796 – May 26, 1863) was one of America’s earliest women botanical and scientific illustrators and artists, best known for illustrating the scientific works of her husband, geologist Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864), but also notable for her own artistic and scientific work.

Hitchcock was born to a prosperous farming family (Jarib and Ruth Sherman White) in South Amherst, Massachusetts. She was educated by a tutor and at two “ladies” schools, proved herself a child prodigy in numerous scientific and classical subjects, and showed early promise in drawing and painting. From 1813 to 1818 she taught young girls natural sciences, and the fine and decorative arts at Deerfield Academy. Her early training grounded her in both science and art. Hitchcock has been called the Connecticut River Valley’s “earliest and most often published woman artist.”

Hitchcock’s art was integral to the work of her husband, geologist Edward Hitchcock, Principal of Deerfield Academy, minister, professor and third president of Amherst College (1845–1854). She made hundreds of illustrations for Edward Hitchcock’s scientific publications, including detailed landscapes of the Connecticut River Valley for his Massachusetts geological survey volumes, and custom designed charts that illustrated his local discoveries and his classroom lectures. In addition, she made detailed drawings of native flowers and grasses and small precise watercolors of small local mushrooms. Her work is a time-focused chronicle of the scenic, botanically and geologically diverse Connecticut River Valley in western Massachusetts. Orra White Hitchocock, a scientist in her own right, had the contemporary reputation as one of the valley’s “most distinguished naturalists.”

Between 1817 and 1821 the Hitchcock and her husband collected native plants for a conventional herbarium. At the same time, she created a 64-page album of watercolors of about 175 local flower and grass specimens for her Herbarium parvum, pictum. This painted herbarium is in the Deerfield Academy Archives.

Orra White married Edward Hitchcock on May 31, 1821. In the summer and fall, she created a small watercolor album of native mushrooms and lichens, Fungi selecti picti. Edward Hitchcock labeled and catalogued the specimens. This painted album is in the Smith College Archives; a facsimile has been published by the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College.