The Botanical Magazine, which later became known as Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, was founded by William Curtis (1746-1799) in February of 1787. The Botanical Magazine was the first journal on the subject of botany to be published in England. The journal included hand engraved and hand colored illustrations by some of the greatest botanical artists in England. 
In 1845 chromolithography was introduced to the journal, but even as late as 1949 images were sometimes retouched by hand. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine ceased publication in 1983. There were 184 volumes with a total of 10, 570 plates. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine was replaced by the Kew Magazine in 1984, which has a drastically different format and a reduced number of plates.