Accession No
6662.15
Brief Description
Folder of 25 paintings, drawings & photographs labelled "Potato various notes," no. 15 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 25 paintings, drawings & photographs labelled "Potato various notes," no. 15 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.
6662.15.a --
A page of typed notes without illustrations. Seems to be part of a correspondence involving an effort to identify a particular disease (early blight of potato). Refers to the drawing on the following page.
6662.15.b -- "Target Spot of Potato Leaves."
A watercolour & pen drawing of a potato plant under a glass jar. The typed notes describe the experiment which attempted to identify the cause of the target spot.
6662.15.c --
Unlabelled page indicating observations (on the previous experiment?) suspended 21 May 1934.
6662.15.d -- "Alternaria solani."
Two watercolours of infected potato leaves; dated 9 November 1933.
6662.15.e --
Two black and white photographs, the labels explain that they were exposed to differing light levels for 7 months.
6662.15.f -- "Alternaria solani."
Three watercolours of infected potato leaves; dated 9 November 1933.
6662.15.g -- "Alternaria sp."
A small watercolour painting of potato leaves pasted onto the top of the page; three sketches of pathogenic organisms (?), magnified x250. Typed notes describe the measurements of the spores.
6662.15.h -- "Target like lesions on a potato leaf"
Page of typed notes describing specimen from Lincolnshire & Cambridgeshire, and measurements of spores.
6662.15.i --
Watercolour of a magnified spore with label.
6662.15.j --
Two watercolours of potato leaves with labels. Describing an experiment with the target spot fungus.
6662.15.k -- "Alternaria solani"
A watercolour & pen sketch of a potato tuber section, describing an inoculation experiment.
6662.15.l -- "Early blight or Target spot of Potatoes. Alternaria solani."
A sketch of a magnified spore, dated September 1933, with description of the sample from which the spore was taken.
6662.15.m -- "TARGET-LIKE LESIONS ON POTATO LEAVES."
Four watercolours of infected potato leaves with descriptions of the farm of origin and an experiment in which diseased tissue was cultured.
6662.15.n -- "SPOTTING ON POTATO LEAVES."
A watercolour of an infected potato plant with spotted leaves, dated 14 July 1933, with description of farm of origin.
6662.15.o -- "FROST DAMAGE."
Typed page with notes of an incident of frost damage at a farm.
6662.15.p -- "POTATOES CHITTED IN VISIBLE LIGHT OF A RELATIVELY LOW INTENSITY."
Three watercolours of potatoes, dated April 1933.
6662.15.q -- "POTATOES CHITTED IN VISIBLE LIGHT OF A RELATIVELY HIGH INTENSITY."
One watercolour of a potato sending up shoots, dated April 1933.
6662.15.r -- "POTATOES CHITTED IN LIGHTS OF DIFFERENT INTENSITIES."
Two watercolours of chitted potatoes, and a description of their storage conditions.
6662.15.s --
A watercolour and pen drawng of a potato plant under a glass jar. The typed notes describe the terms of the experiment, involving Macrosporium sp.
6662.15.t -- "Types of spores obtained from target-like lesions on a potato leaf."
Two watercolours of spores with labels describing them.
6662.15.u -
A watercolour of a potato tuber sending up shoots. The typed notes describe the storage conditions and possible sources of the problem.
6662.15.v --
Three small watercolours cut and pasted onto the page. Typed notes describe the conditions of storage and labels describe the conditions of the specimens.
6662.15.w --
Two watercolours of potato tubers. Typed notes describe the possible sources of the problem and include correspondence from G. H. Bates (source of the sample).
6662.15.x -- "POTATO."
Watercolour of an infected potato.
6662.15.y -- "POTATO."
Watercolour of an infected potato. Dated February 1934.
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:47337
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