Frances W. Horne papers

Frances Worth Horne (1873-1967) was a botanical illustrator who composed watercolors of Puerto Rican flora for Nathaniel Lord Britton's unfinished work, Flora Borinquena. She was born in Watkins Glen, New York and obtained a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University and a master's degree in languages from Cornell University. She began her career as professor of classical languages at Westminster College in Colorado. She and her husband, Charles E. Horne, relocated to Puerto Rico in 1918 where they lived until Mr. Horne died in 1963. During her years on the island she created hundreds of watercolor illustrations of its flora and bird life, and her botanical artwork gained an international reputation.

In 1922 Mrs. Horne wrote to Britton expressing her interest in contributing watercolors of Puerto Rican flowering plants to The Botany of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. He was unable to include her illustrations in this publication, but she eventually contributed her artwork to the NYBG journal, Addisonia. At Britton's death in 1934, Flora Borinquena was left unfinished though Mrs. Horne had completed over 700 watercolors of native and naturalized Puerto Rican plant species for the work. In 1963, Mrs. Horne presented her collection as a gift to the NYBG. She also painted the Caribbean bird life and contributed illustrations to Common Trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (1967) by Elbert Little, Frank Wadsworth, and Jose Marrero. She died at the age of 94 in Albany, New York.