Jane Webb Loudon (1807-1858) had a fascinating life. She was born in 1807 to to a wealthy family near Birmingham in England.
She was raised in luxury. Unfortunately her father's fortune evaporated and he died penniless in 1824 when she was 17. She found "on the winding up of his affairs that it would be necessary to do something for my support". So, Jane wrote an unusual science fiction novel called The Mummy. It was unusual as she wrote about foreseeable changes in technology, society, and fashion. For example, ladies wear trousers and hair ornaments of controlled flame. Surgeons and lawyers were steam-powered automatons. There is even a kind of Internet predicted in it.
She became fascinated with her husband's field of agriculture. She found gardening manuals confusing as they were written for experts. She decided to write more readable ones herself. Loudon's gardening manuals were beautifully illustrated. They had full page, hand coloured lithographs. Nowadays antique print collectors highly regard her prints.
Here are some of her botanical lithographs. They are antique prints, made in the 1850s.
