Lucretia B. Hamilton made pen and ink drawings of cactus from living specimens for the book entitled The Cacti of the United States and Canada by Lyman Benson, published by Stanford Press in 1982. Between 2008 and 2010 her son Edward H. Hamilton, Tamarind Master Printer and owner of Hamilton Press in Venice, California, printed her drawings and hand-colored the prints with colored pencil.
These prints are a unique contribution to botanical art of the Sonoran Desert Region not only because of the relationship between the printer-artist and the original illustrator but also because of the important place Lucretia Hamilton has in the botanical and artistic heritage of our region.
Exhibit Item 57
Cereus thurberi
Current classification: Stenocereus thurberi
Organ pipe cactus, Pitahaya dulce
© 2009 Edward Hamilton: Hand-colored lithograph
prepared from a pen and ink drawing by
Lucretia B. Hamilton, ca. 1982
From the Collection of the
Sonoran Desert Florilegium Program
This second largest cactus in Arizona has a national monument set aside to protect its habitat. The delicious and nutritious fruit has been a significant food for indigenous people throughout the range of the plant.
Exhibit Item 58
Mammilaria heyderi var. macdougalii
Current classification: Mammillaria macdougalii
Cream cactus
© 2009 Edward Hamilton: Hand-colored lithograph
prepared from a pen and ink drawing by
Lucretia B. Hamilton, ca. 1982
From the Collection of Gene Joseph and Jane Evans
One of 2 cacti in Arizona with milky sap in the stems. Found from the higher Arizona Uplands to grasslands and oak woodlands in Arizona and Sonora.
