Mary Morris Vaux received a set of watercolor paints at age eight and began experimenting with painting flowers. After her mother’s death when Mary was nineteen, she assumed the responsibility of looking after her two younger brothers and her father. The family spent summers in the Canadian Rockies, where Mary and her brothers studied mineralogy and recorded the flow of glaciers in drawings and photographs. After 1887, Mary returned to western Canada almost every summer with her brothers and became an active mountain climber, outdoorswoman, and photographer. One summer a botanist asked her to paint a rare blooming arnica; her success in recording the flower encouraged her to concentrate on botanical illustration. For many years Mary Vaux explored difficult terrain in the Canadian Rockies, looking for important flowering species to paint.
In 1913 she met Charles Doolittle Walcott, then secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, when he was conducting geological research. They were married a year later. Beginning the following summer, the couple spent from three to four months each season in the Canadian Rockies, where Dr. Walcott continued his geological and paleontological studies. During these summers Mary Vaux Walcott painted hundreds of watercolor studies of native flowers.
At the urging of botanists and wildflower enthusiasts, a selection of four hundred of her illustrations was published in 1925 by the Smithsonian Institution in a five-volume edition titled North American Wild Flowers. In 1935 she contributed the illustrations to the volume North American Pitcher Plants, also published by the Smithsonian.
Credit Line: Text courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Product Information
Expect crisp detail and vivid color from our giclée process fine art prints. We use archival pigment inks on cotton fiber paper to achieve a wide color gamut, deep blacks and beautiful tonal transitions. Unlike posters, they will not fade or yellow, but maintain their original quality for as long as you own them.
How to Frame
Historical artworks were produced in whatever shapes and sizes best suited the artists and their patrons, and these rarely correspond to the proportions of modern, mass-produced frames. Most reproductions sold on the web are cropped to an arbitrary standard, compromising the integrity of the original artwork. We solve this by using accent borders to make up any differences in proportion.Framing may be as simple as inserting the print into a standard size frame with the borders showing. In many cases, our customers choose to have them matted. Borders allow space for framers to mount the print while covering little, if any, of the artwork. Our images are sized to provide desirable mat widths in common frames.Sizes 9” x 12”, 12” x 16”, and 16” x 20” are designed to be matted in larger frames, such as 11” x 14”, 16” x 20” and 20” x 24”, respectively. Larger prints may be matted in frames of equal size, the borders corresponding to the shape of the mat. Where the artwork is unusually square or narrow, other sizes may be preferred.If our sizing does not meet your requirements, we provide customization free of charge. Please contact us to discuss the details.
Shipping and Returns
All orders ship within one business day. The following services are available at checkout:
United States
Shipping Class |
Price |
Estimated Delivery Window |
USPS First Class Parcel |
Free |
3 – 5 business days |
USPS Priority Mail |
$3.99 |
2 – 4 business days |
USPS Priority Mail Express |
$29.99 |
1 – 3 days, guaranteed |
Canada *
Shipping Class |
Price |
Estimated Delivery Window |
USPS First Class International |
$11.99 |
1 – 3 weeks |
USPS Priority Mail Express |
$56.99 |
3 – 5 business days |
International, Excluding Canada *
Shipping Class |
Price |
Estimated Delivery Window |
USPS First Class International |
$17.99 |
1 – 4 weeks |
USPS Priority Mail Express |
$62.99 |
3 – 5 business days |
* International orders may be subject to import taxes at time of delivery.
Returns Policy
If you are unhappy with your order for any reason, you are welcome to return it within 60 days for a full refund. Please contact us and return your item(s) to:
The Ibis
809 Grant Street
Endicott, NY 13760
Your return will be processed on receipt.