Chylocladia Ovalis Frosted Pint Glass

This frosted pint glass features Anna Atkins' cyanotype of Chylocladia ovalis — a piece of red algae that has worn three names across three centuries: first Fucus ovatus, then Chylocladia ovalis, and finally Gastroclonium ovatum. The genus kept changing as botanists reorganized the algae around it, but the second word held fast — ovatus, ovalis, both rooted in ovum, the Latin word for "egg." Fitting, maybe, for something that keeps beginning again under a new name. Different words, different eras, same meaning. Some things just hold their shape.

Before "photography" was a word anyone used, Anna Atkins was making pictures of the sea. A scientist who worked like an artist, she spent years pressing algae onto light-sensitive paper and letting the sun do the rest. The images she made in the mid-1800s are some of the earliest photographs in existence.

• 16oz
• Dishwasher safe