Orra White Hitchcock

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. Life Orra White 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, and she has been called the Connecticut River Valley's "earliest and most often published woman artist." On May 31, 1821, Orra White married geologist Edward Hitchcock, principal of Deerfield Academy, minister, professor and third president of Amherst College. Hitchcock's art was integral to the work of her husband. 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 Hitchcock, a scientist in her own right, had the contemporary reputation as one of the valley's “most distinguished naturalists.”