Manhattan Museum Scene

The Divine Orra White Hitchcock

By Margot Clark-Junkins

The American Folk Art Museum’s exhibition, “Charting the Divine Plan: The Art of Orra White Hitchcock (1796-1863),” shines a light on one of the earliest known female science illustrators, a woman of great intellect, scientific curiosity, and artistic ability.

As a girl, Orra White demonstrated a keen interest in learning and was a math prodigy, which may have motivated her parents to provide her with the most comprehensive education possible, a privilege few girls were afforded at that time.

At the age of 17, she began teaching botany, cartography, and other subjects to the female students at Deerfield Academy. It was there she met and began working closely with the headmaster of the boys’ school, Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864).

Hitchcock, who had attended Deerfield Academy, went on to become the official geologist for the state of Massachusetts, and taught at Amherst College for all but four years of his career. He was largely responsible for the discovery and classification of dinosaurs in the Connecticut River Valley and he made many important discoveries about the region’s geological riches. In addition to his love of science, Hitchcock was a deeply religious man and trained at Yale to become a Congregational minister.

White was equally spiritual. Both she and Hitchcock appeared to find answers in science that did not detract, and perhaps even solved, their questions about God and the mysteries in nature. They attended literary society gatherings and took walks in the woods to collect botanical specimens. Hitchcock relied upon her scientific insights and benefitted from the intellectual and spiritual discussions they shared. Over time, unsurprisingly they fell in love.

When they collaborated in the field, she would produce detailed drawings and paintings to illustrate and clarify his findings. Her rainbow-striped geological charts, exquisitely detailed botanical paintings, and drawings of marine creatures and dinosaurs are all extraordinary.

After they were married in 1821, Orra stayed home to raise their family and run the household, but she continued to collaborate with her husband, delving into a number of scientific inquiries, producing all kinds of illustrations. In the exhibit, we learn about Hitchcock’s discoveries and watch him work to solidify his standing in the scientific world while Orra steadily supported him behind the scenes. He thanks her again and again in letters to colleagues and in his published works.

Orra White Hitchcock painted on lengths of cotton, which her husband would unfurl for his students during his classroom lectures at Amherst. As exhibit curator Stacy C. Hollander explains, “Strata, contortions, dikes, veins, faults, and other evidence of upheavals in the landscape were abstracted to their most essential elements, outlined in black ink, and gorgeously painted in fresh washes of transparent color.” Her paintings have a modern, almost graphic, look to them which is very appealing.

Parents and their children, dinosaur-lovers, educators, and the science-minded will all enjoy the show, which is the perfect blend of science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Literature and poetry buffs take note: Emily Dickinson knew Orra and Edward Hitchcock and drew inspiration from their botanical studies.

The exhibit runs through October 12. The American Folk Art Museum, located on Columbus Avenue between 65^th and 66^th streets, is closed on Monday. Admission is free, as are jazz concerts Wednesday between 2 and 3 p.m.