Margaret Senior Plant Disease Paintings

These coloured illustrations were commissioned by the Division of Science Services of NSW Agriculture in 1964. The artist, Mrs Margaret Senior, was originally commissioned to produce 24 coloured paintings of plant diseases and other aspects of biology at the princely sum of £21 each. She eventually produced more than 80 superb illustrations which are still used in leaflets produced by NSW Agriculture today. The original drawings are filed in the Agricultural Scientific Collections Unit.

Margaret Senior was one of the celebrated artists of her time. She was the illustrator for Eve Pownall's "The Australia Book" which won the Children's Book of the Year award in 1952 and illustrated other children's books, some of which also won awards. She was an excellent illustrator of Australian natural history, producing the illustrations for a series of highly popular posters on Australian Parrots, Raptors, Waterfowl and Reptiles for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. She left a bequest to NPWS in her will to be used to promote natural history illustration and the Margaret Senior Wildlife Illustration Award is presented annually by the University of Newcastle.

Note: Use of these images for any purpose without permission of the Curator of Herb-DAR constitutes a breach of copyright. Permission can be requested by contacting the Curator Herb-DAR at ascu@agric.nsw.gov.au