Adelia Sarah Gates

Who was Adelia Sarah Gates?

Adelia Sarah Gates was an American illustrator of botanical specimens. Her early work was as an elementary teacher and decorative watercolorist. She was an amateur decorative watercolorist and painter long before she was able to advance further into scientific illustration methods and to travel widely on collecting and documentation expeditions later in her life.

She was born in the Susquehanna Valley. Gates worked as a guardian, farmworker, teacher, and as a factory worker in the Lowell Mills before being attending college. In her thirties, she attended Antioch College, only to leave after two years due to health issues. She started painting in her fifties, after taking lessons from Emile Vouga.

Over 600 of her works were exhibited and donated to the United States National Museum, which later became the Smithsonian Institution.