Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Waratah card (c. 1881)

Waratah card (c. 1881)

Chromolithograph

Australian Floral Cards by Helena Forde (1832–1910) and Harriet Scott (1830–1907), printed by Turner & Henderson, 581.991/F


Sisters Helena and Harriet Scott were Sydney’s leading natural history illustrators in the later part of the 19th century. In 1880, they were employed by Sydney booksellers Turner and Henderson to produce the Australian Floral Cards series of Christmas and New Year cards depicting local wildflowers. They appear to be the first locally published, Australian-designed Christmas cards and were registered as works of fine art. The greetings were overprinted later.


Their illustrations were completed with the aid of microscopes to capture the necessary detail. They often worked with living specimens, which gave their work vibrancy and lifelike qualities. 

The original preparatory drawing for the waratah card is also held in the Library, Telopea speciosissima ‘Waratah’, 1879. PXA 1710/no.120

The Scott sisters were not formally trained, they were schooled in the techniques of natural history illustration by their father A.W (Walker) Scott.


The sisters became highly skilled artists and for a number of decades they created almost all of the artwork for scientific literature produced in Sydney.

Helena and Harriet Scott were first cousins of David Scott Mitchell, founder and benefactor of The Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

Harriet and Helena were only 21 and 19 when they completed the illustrations for their father’s outstanding work Australian Lepidoptera and their Transformations.