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Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden, born September 17th, is a botanical artist nonpareil. Mrs. Dowden began illustrating when she was five years old. Her family moved to Colorado because her father had tuberculosis. He was a pathologist at the University of Colorado, and she illustrated for him. She was educated at the University of Colorado, the Carnegie Institute of Technology, the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, and the Art Students League. Mrs. Dowden was a drawing instructor at the Pratt Institute, chairman of the Art Department at Manhattanville College, and a freelance textile designer in New York City. Since 1950, she has been a freelance botanical artist and writer. She collects the plants, illustrates, writes, designs the books, and then presents them as a package to her publishers. She was married to Ray Dowden, also an artist, who taught at Cooper Union. He passed away in 1982. Mrs. Dowden's last book was Poisons in our Path: Plants That Harm and Heal (1994). She has said, "Art teaches young people. I wanted to present ideas myself pictorially and in words. We're lucky to be artists. I always found it a very satisfying field."
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