Accession No
6662.6
Brief Description
Folder of 14 paintings/drawings and photographs labelled "Currant, Blackberry, Loganberry," no. 6 of 35, by Dr W. A. R. Dillon Weston, English, 1930s
Origin
England; Cambridgeshire
Maker
Dillon Weston, W. A. R.
Class
natural history
Earliest Date
1932
Latest Date
1938
Inscription Date
Material
paper
Dimensions
365mm x 250mm
Special Collection
Dr W. A. R. Dillon Weston Collection
Provenance
Inscription
Many pages have typed notes; see Description Notes.
Description Notes
Folder of 14 paintings/drawings and photographs labelled "Currant, Blackberry, Loganberry," no. 6 of 35, by Dr W. A. R. Dillon Weston, English, 1930s
NOTE: all objects have been transferred into archive folders for conservation purposes; original folders were photographed (see Images) and are stored separately.
6662.6.a -- "WILD BLACKBERRY ( RUBUS FRUCTICOSUS ) RUST. PHRAGMIDIUM sp."
Two watercolour paintings of blackberry leaves showing the upper and under surface of the infected leaves. The typed notes describe the current state of the rust throughout East Anglia. Dated 12 October 1933.
6662.6.b -- "Himalayan Blackberry. Friction damage between cane and its support."
Two drawings of blackberry stems have been cut and pasted onto the page. Dated 1933.
6662.6.c -- "Himalayan Blackberry. Mite damage."
Watercolour painting of a blackberry plant. The farm of origin is noted and the date, September 1934.
6662.6.d -- "Coral Spot. Nectria cinnabratina, (Tode) Fr."
A watercolour painting labelled, "Black Currant bush dying."
6662.6.e -- "Logan-berry. Plectodiscella veneta."
A black and white photograph (75 x 155mm) of two logan-berry stalks.
6662.6.f -- "Coral Spot. Nectria cinnabratina, (Tode) Fr."
A watercolour composite painting of two stages of the coral spot on a black current stem. The drawing is labelled, "Perithecia" and "Pustules of conidiophores"
6662.6.g --
Four unlabelled watercolour paintings showing stems and red spores and fungal growths. Two have been cut and pasted onto the page.
6662.6.h -- "Coral Spot. Nectria cinnabratina, (Tode) Fr."
A typed description of the fungus, its progression and methods of control.
6662.6.i -- "Coral Spot. Nectria cinnabratina, (Tode) Fr."
Two watercolour paintings of black current stems showing pustules. The notes describe the specimen and a recommendation for controlling the spread of the fungus.
6662.6.j -- "Currant Aphides Capitophorus ribis, Linn."
A watercolour painting of infected currant leaves. The typed notes describe the effect of the aphids and their life cycle.
6662.6.k -- "Black Currants. Leaf Spot. Pseudopeziza ribis, Kleb."
A page of typed notes describing the disease, various experiments that have investigated how it might be controlled, and recommendations gleaned from these experiments. The experiments are cited from R. W. Marsh and J. G. Maynard at the Long Ashton Research Station in Bristol.
6662.6.l -- "Puccinia pringsheimiana Klebh."
Two watercolour paintings showing the effects of the disease on black current leaves and other hosts. The notes indicate the farm of origin and the life cycle of the fungus.
6662.6.m -- "Spotting of Raspberry Leaves."
A watercolour painting of an infected raspberry leaf; the notes indicate the farm of origin and date (16 June 1933).
6662.6.n -- "Currant and Gooseberry Aphides."
A typed page describing the aphides and their effect on the plants. Methods of control are also mentioned, involving nicotine and soap.
References
Events
Description
Dr. W.A.R. Dillon Weston spent all of his professional life in Cambridge. After obtaining his degree in Natural Sciences at St. Catharine’s College, Dr. Dillon Weston gained employment as a mycologist (an expert in the study of fungi) at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Ministry Pathologists at that time were stationed at universities, where teaching and supervision of students were included as part of their duties.
During the 1930’s, Dillon Weston produced nearly 1,000 watercolour paintings of plants suffering from a wide variety of afflictions: mostly various fungal infections, but also pest attacks, nutrient deficiencies, and bad farming practices. These drawings were produced in connection with his position at the Ministry, which he described as forming a “link between the farm and the research station.” Farmers would send samples of afflicted crops to the Ministry, and Dillon Weston would diagnose the problem and offer solutions. This work was an example of the emerging school of “New” or “Economic” Botany, in which economically important plant diseases were studied with an eye to increasing crop yields.
Typed notes accompanying the paintings suggest that many of them were depictions of samples received by Dillon Weston at the Ministry, though it is unclear why he made them. Like his glass fungi models, also held by the Whipple (Wh.5826), the paintings may have been a hobby undertaken during bouts of insomnia. Some of the paintings are demonstrative or didactic in nature, and Dillon Weston may have used them in his lectures at the university, which he endeavoured to make “as interesting as possible,” according to a 1952 profile in Varsity, the Cambridge student newspaper.
The paintings demonstrate a careful attention to detail and a desire for accurate representation, which sometimes led Dillon Weston to push up against the limits of flat, two-dimensional representation. For example, he used painted cotton stuffing underneath layers of paper to imitate spores bulging up underneath a scab on an apple tree (Wh.6662.28, Wh.6662.29), and splashes of blue watercolour paint to demonstrate how far fungal spores can be spread by raindrops (6662.10).
12/09/2018
Created by: Matthew Green on 12/09/2018
FM:47328
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