Botanical Illustration at Fort Nisqually this weekend

Kathleen McKeehen, botanical illustrator, will be drawing and painting at Fort Nisqually Living History Museum July 12 and 13.  Her weekend appearance is part of the summer-long Crafts of the Past series.   

McKeehen discovered botanical painting after many years as a classroom teacher. She studied at UC Santa Cruz, and completed an internship at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Britain. Her hand-done illustrations have appeared in magazines, museums and interpretive centers, and children’s publications. Visitors will have a chance to work alongside McKeehen as she demonstrates traditional techniques used by illustrators in the 1800s.  

McKeehen will give a program at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 12, about the 19th century botanical illustrators – men, women, and adventurers – who helped make the Kew’s collection famous. Many of the specimens collected by Fort Nisqually’s Dr. Tolmie in the 1830s and 40s are in the Kew collection. Reproductions of some of them are included in the current Fort exhibit “Dr. Tolmie, the Naturalist,” which closes July 20. 

Crafts of the Past is sponsored by the Fort Nisqually Foundation and made possible by grants from the Nisqually Indian Tribe and Tacoma Arts Commission. It is free with paid admission. Fort Nisqually Living History Museum is a restoration of the Hudson’s Bay Company outpost on Puget Sound. Visitors travel back in time and experience life in Washington Territory during the 1850s. Nine buildings are open to the public, including the Granary and the Factors House, both National Historic Landmarks, and a Visitor Center with Museum Store. For more information, visit FortNisqually.org or call (253) 591-5339