Anna Frances Walker
Anna Frances Walker was an early Australian botanical collector and plant illustrator.
Life
She was born in 1830 at the family home "Rhodes" in Concord, [New South Wales] on the Parramatta River, one of a large family. In 1832, the family moved to Van Diemen's Land, where she, like her mother, collected and painted botanical subjects. At the age of 16 or 17, she returned to New South Wales to live with her grandmother, and there she was instructed in watercolour painting by Henry Curzon Allport. After the death of her father, the family returned to the Sydney property, "Rhodes", where Annie remained for the rest of her life.By August 1881, Anna had amassed a considerable body of work, and she contacted Ferdinand von Mueller in Melbourne, for help with identifications and advice about publishing. Eventually, in 1887, she self-published, but the poor quality of the lithographs let her down. Plants illustrated were: Ceratopetalum gummiferum, Acacia spectabilis, Epacris longiflora, Zieria laevigata, Blandfordia nobilis, Darwinia fascicularis, Ricinocarpos pinifolius, Epacris microphylla, Sprengelia incarnata, Gompholobium grandiflorum, Bauera rubioides, Melaleuca linariifolia, Eriostemon silicifolius, Kennedia monophylla, Clematis glycinoides.
Ultimately, her collection consisted of some 1700 illustrations of plants from both Tasmania and New South Wales, painted between 1875 and 1910, but she failed to find a publisher, and sold her collection to David Scott Mitchell for £70 in 1910.
The National Herbarium of Victoria holds 19 specimens collected by her in New South Wales, and sent to Mueller between the years of 1892 and 1895.
The Australasian Virtual Herbarium lists seventeen specimens collected by "Walker, A.F.", all housed at MEL, of which fourteen are fungi and three are plants. Cortinarius walkeri, a fungus, is named for her, and the type specimen is , a specimen she collected.
Botanical drawings
| year | scientific Name | Catalog Number | |
| 1892 | Piptoporus australiensis | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Boletellus emodensis | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Clavaria fusiporius | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Clavaria spinulosa | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Cortinarius walkeri | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Elaeocarpus reticulatus | Plantae | |
| 1893 | Gymnopilus allantopus | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Hemigenia purpurea | Plantae | |
| 1893 | Lactarius eucalypti | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Omphalotus nidiformis | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Pleurotus australis | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Ramaria botrytis | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Ramaria botrytis | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Russula clelandii | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Russula wollumbina | Fungi | |
| 1893 | Russula wollumbina | Fungi | |
| 1895 | Pomaderris ligustrina subsp. ligustrina | Plantae |