Accession No
6662.7
Brief Description
Folder of 13 paintings/drawings labelled "Gooseberry," no. 7 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 13 paintings/drawings labelled "Gooseberry," no. 7 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.
6662.7.a -- "Gooseberry A.G.M. Sphaerotheca mors-uvae"
Four watercolour paintings showing infected gooseberries and descriptions of the mildew, with methods for control noted.
6662.7.b --
An unlabelled drawing of a plant cell structure on a smaller (160 x 285mm) piece of paper.
6662.7.c -- "AMERICAN GOOSEBERRY MILDEW. Spherotheca mors-uvae."
Two watercolours of magnified mildew forms, one labelled "Conidia." and the other "Cleistocarp," covered with a sheet of wax paper
6662.7.d --
Four unlabelled watercolours of gooseberries (?).
6662.7.e -- "DIE-BACK DISEASE OF GOOSEBERRIES Botrytis cinerea"
A watercolour of a section of a blackberry stem, with descriptions of the fungus, where it attacks the bush, and methods for control.
6662.7.f -- "DIE-BACK OF GOOSEBERRIES Botrytis cinerea"
Two watercolour paintings of infected gooseberries with a description of the farm of origin and findings.
6662.7.g --
Two paintings (one cut and pasted on) and one sketch in pen. The painting is labelled "periconia byssoidea" (?) and the sketch "acremonium st." in pencil. Dated February 1937.
6662.7.h --
A painting of an infected gooseberry stem. Dated February 1937, the rest of the writing in pencil is illegible.
6662.7.i --
A painting of a gooseberry stem and root system (?). Pencil writing is illegible.
6662.7.j --
A painting of a gooseberry stem and root system (?). Pencil writing is illegible.
6662.7.k -- "Sclerotinia Fuckeliana, de Bary Conidial stage = botrytis cinerea, Pers."
A typed page describing the fungus and its progression. Two measures of control are suggested.
6662.7.l --
A watercolour painting of a gooseberry root system. Pencil writing in the corner is illegible.
6662.7.m -- "Sclerotinia Fuckeliana, de Bary Conidial stage = botrytis cinerea, Pers."
A watercolour painting of an infected gooseberry bush; the typed label indicates that it is suffering from die back caused by the above fungus.
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:47329
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