Artists Represented in the Smithsonian Catalog of Botanical Illustrations

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Peggy-Ann Kessler Duke is a professional botanical illustrator specializing in pen and ink and hand- colored prints. She received a B.S. from Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee in 1953 and a M.S. in Botany from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1956. Since then she has worked as both a staff and a free lance illustrator for institutions such as the University of North Carolina; the Missouri Botanical Garden; the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; the Nevada Fish and Wildlife Commission; the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland; the University of Maryland at College Park; and the Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution.

Published examples of her work may be seen in the Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (1968), the Melastomataceae fascicles of both the Flora de Venezuela (1973) and the Flora of the Guianas (1993), Threatened and Endangered Plants of Nevada (1980), Medicinal Plants of the Bible (1983), Living Liquors (1987), and the CRC Handbook of Edible Weeds (1992); the last three books written by her husband, James A. Duke (b. 1929), a botanist now retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Peggy also has illustrated botanical text books, scientific articles, and dissertations.

She had a one man show of floral paintings in 1989 at the U.S. National Arboretum and has exhibited in many other group shows in the Washington, D.C. area. As a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, she also has displayed her work at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. National Arboretum, and the National Wildlife Federation.

Peggy currently resides in Fulton, Maryland with her husband.

Examples of illustrations by Peggy-Ann Kessler Duke in our catalog.

Miconia plukenetii

Leandra paleacea

Comolia ayangannae