--- title: Anna Atkins, Photography Pioneer, Honored in New Google Doodle description: Anna Atkins is honored in a new Google Doodle, featuring images of leaves reminiscent of the botanist’s contribution to photography canonical: https://time.com/3745461/anna-atkins-google-doodle-photography-pioneer/ author: Kevin McSpadden article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-16T03:49:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:34.198Z og:title: New Google Doodle Honors Anna Atkins, Photography Pioneer og:description: Atkins' book is considered to be the first to use photographic illustrations. og:url: https://time.com/3745461/anna-atkins-google-doodle-photography-pioneer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9fd82a1636a7005d/698783a70b72e3d5256de2c6/google-doodle-anna-atkins-photography.jpg?branch=production&width=382&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 382 og:image:height: 215 og:image:alt: Google-Doodle-Anna-Atkins-Photography og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Google Doodle Honors Anna Atkins, Photography Pioneer twitter:description: Atkins' book is considered to be the first to use photographic illustrations. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9fd82a1636a7005d/698783a70b72e3d5256de2c6/google-doodle-anna-atkins-photography.jpg?branch=production&width=382&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Google Doodle Honors Anna Atkins, Photography Pioneer > Sponsored content. 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It covers the reporting, scoops and conversations shaping AI and the decisions facing leaders. #### Where can I get reported AI news rather than commentary? In the Loop is TIME's AI newsletter, built on original reporting and access to the people building and governing AI. It publishes Tuesdays and Fridays and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes TIME's In the Loop? Harry Booth, a tech reporter at TIME, writes In the Loop. #### Is In the Loop free? Yes. In the Loop is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-loop-2026q3/newsletters?i=3f105a09-63be-48ef-af72-2b942557e1d9&cr=time-nl-loop-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How Google Makes its Doodles [Watch (HLS stream): How Google Makes its Doodles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8) (3:23)  _Published 2018-07-07. Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as_ by [Kevin McSpadden](https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/) ## Kevin McSpadden Mar 16, 2015 3:49 AM UTC  Images of leaves reminiscent to Anna Atkins' photography book are seen in a new Google Doodle. March 16, 2015 Images of leaves reminiscent to Anna Atkins' photography book are seen in a new Google Doodle. March 16, 2015 Google by [Kevin McSpadden](https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/) ## Kevin McSpadden Mar 16, 2015 3:49 AM UTC To celebrate what would have been the 216th birthday of Anna Atkins, a new Google Doodle features images of leaves reminiscent of the botanist’s groundbreaking contribution to photography. Atkins used a version of “sun-printing” to create a book of photographed botanical specimens. _Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions_ was self-published in 1843 and is considered to be the first book illustrated with photographs. The method Atkins used for developing photos is called the Cyanotype technique. It is an iron-based chemical method that creates a white image appearing on a blue background. Exposure to sunlight is required for the process to work correctly, hence “sun-printing.” Through her career, Atkins collected hundreds of specimens and in 1865 she donated her entire collection to the British Museum. Born in Kent, southern England, on March 16, 1799, Atkins was raised by her father, a respected scientist, after her mother died during her daughter’s infancy. Atkins died on June 9, 1871, at the age of 72. ## Transcript [00:01] >>The Doodle [00:07] team was able to meet Ira Glass from This American Life, [00:10] and he was just meeting us for fun. I guess, I'm not even [00:13] sure why he was here, but we talked about potentially [00:17] collaborating and they thought that it'd be fun to collaborate [00:21] with us on Valentine's Day, so I took the lead on [00:25] this project. [00:34] >>We do Valentine's Day pretty much every year, and [00:36] we've done your typical like lovebirds and, you know, [00:39] flowers and things like that. But Ira and his [00:44] team are awesome. [00:44] >>They were able to pull stories that they have collected [00:47] over the years, they've recorded new stories for us, and [00:49] they're all about love in all different respects of the word. [00:55] They sent us maybe 8 or 10 stories and they're all really [00:58] fun and really sweet. [00:59] >>The stories run the [ unk ]. There is [01:03] a story about middle school love. [01:03] >>I was in the cafeteria, just got [01:07] on a drink of root beer and she walks up to me. [01:11] >>There is a story about a new bride who's in doubt that [01:14] she made a mistake. [01:14] >>My husband, me and I, we're just so worried, his face I [01:14] could tell. I said, " Where he could be ," you know, and [01:20] I-- and I called the police because I thought [01:24] he got lost or something happened. [01:28] >>When I first got the audio from Ira, my co- worker and I [01:31] listened to it together and we wrote down bullet points of [01:34] where we wanted to have a little drawing come up. [01:37] >>One of my favorite stories, it involves middle schoolers. [01:43] We're titling it, " Puppy Love" so true to the title, I just-- I just [01:46] drew everyone as a dog. [01:47] >>Each stories are-- containing a little candy heart. [01:47] >>And when you click on it, the heart will flip, [01:52] the audio will play and you will also see the images that [01:55] we've drawn to accompany the phrases. So, [01:59] now we are all going to brainstorms together because we [02:02] need the creative side and we also need the technical side [02:04] to tell us what is possible and what isn't possible. For this [02:08] one, it's a pretty conservative on the interactive side, [02:12] because we didn't want to overshadow the audio. When I [02:15] first started, they were no engineers on the team, we only [02:17] did static doodles, but since then, we've started doing more [02:21] animated stuff, more interactive work, and for that we [02:24] needed a dedicated team. [02:24] >>Some of our most like ambitious to those have come [02:26] from engineers that are just incredibly talented [02:30] and spare similar time for our projects. [02:33] >>Sometimes the illustrators will come up with an idea that [02:36] is way too wacky and just not possible yet. The technology [02:41] hasn't been invented, but sometimes we're too [02:43] conservative and it's great to have the engineers there to [02:46] tell us that we can actually be way wackier with our ideas. [02:53] The relationship with my engineer on this was to just keep [02:56] my files size at a reasonable capacity, I was getting [03:00] a little bit ambitious with how many frames I wanted to draw [03:03] and my engineers said, " Hey, you need to double it ." [03:07] >>We tried to do as many doodles as we possibly can. [03:08] We're a pretty small team, relative to how many audiences [03:11] are out there [ unk ], but yeah, we-- you never know what [03:14] you're gonna get. 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