Taylor studied with renowned portrait artist and American Impressionist William Merritt Chase in Holland during the summer of 1903. Chase later visited her family in Columbia and painted three portraits of them, including this one of Anna.
Anna Heyward Taylor on expedition in British Guiana (present-day Guyana)
Carolina Paroquet (woodblock print on paper, 1935) by Anna Heyward Taylor
The artist donated several of her batik works, including this one inspired by her time in British Guiana, to The Charleston Museum in 1955.
Mexican Street Scene (oil on canvas, circa 1935) by Anna Heyward Taylor
Taylor arrived in Georgetown, British Guiana, with Beebe’s expedition team in 1916. Eight years later, she produced this woodblock print on paper, titled Demerara for that region of the South American colony.
Located on the Hills Estate Rubber Plantation on the Mazaruni River, Kalacoon House served as the team’s research station
Rachel Hartley at work on a drawing
The skins of tropical wildlife specimens hang in the lab above Inness Hartley, William Beebe, and Paul Howes.
Taylor riding with Beebe, possibly in Bartica (date unknown)
Beebe’s friend, former President Theodore Roosevelt, and his wife, Edith, visited the team in March
Inness Hartley at his desk in the lab.
Taylor’s 1916 watercolor of an unidentified plant, possibly Clusia grandiflora
Eight years after her first expedition to British Guiana, Taylor created Jungle Lanterns, a woodblock print based on her scientific illustration in the field
Untitled (Tree Trunks), a 1920 watercolor, represents the artistic freedom she experienced on her second visit to the colony..
On deck, possibly on the Mazaruni River near Bartica
A view of the riverfront town of Bartica
A couple of locals
Beebe and Taylor (right) with an unidentified woman
Beebe (right), possibly on the road from Kartabo to Bartica
Taylor (second from the left)
At the onset of World War I, Taylor joined the American Red Cross—the first woman from South Carolina to do so—serving in France and occupied Germany.
Taylor painted this detailed illustration of the cocoa bean tree’s branch, leaves, buds, and flowers from the jungles of Kartabo, British Guiana, in watercolor and gouache (Maw-a-maw, Cocoa bean, 1920).
Two years after her 1926 visit to St. Thomas with Rachel Hartley, Taylor created this woodblock print, Cha Cha Church, St. Thomas, depicting the hillside of houses and a church at the top.
The artist traveled throughout Mexico from June 1935 to September 1936, capturing the culture and day-to-day lives of its residents in pieces, such as this “white line” woodblock print, Mexican Marketplace (circa 1935).
Taylor moved to Charleston in 1927 and produced numerous signature works of the region, including this woodblock print, The City, in 1939.
