Clarissa Munger Badger
American botanical artist (1806–1889)
Clarissa Munger Badger (20 May 1806 – 14 December 1889) was a mid 19th century American botanical illustrator best known for three volumes of flower paintings accompanied by poetry. She also painted on textiles.
Family
Clarissa W. Munger was born in East Guilford, Connecticut, in 1806 to George Munger, a portrait painter and engraver, and Parnel Kelsey Munger. Clarissa, her older brother George, and her younger sister Caroline all become artists as well, with Caroline specializing in portraits like her father and Clarissa in botanical art.
In 1828, she married the Rev. Milton Badger, pastor of the South Church in Andover, Massachusetts and later the associate secretary of the American Home Missionary Society, a job requiring him to spend time in the western United States. They had five children, of whom two survived to adulthood, both becoming doctors. Milton developed Bright's disease, and the couple moved back Madison, Connecticut, where Clarissa was widowed in 1873.
Works
In 1848, Clarissa Munger Badger privately published A Forget-Me-Not: Flowers from Nature with Selected Poetry under the name C. M. Badger. This was a volume of poetry by William Cullen Bryant, Lydia Sigourney, Mary Howitt, and others illustrated with 13 of her flower paintings.
The public source identifies “Clarissa Munger Badger” as american botanical artist (1806–1889). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Clarissa, Munger and Badger.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20769459. VIAF identifies the subject as 102951714. The Library of Congress control number is n2009165157. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1806, 1889, 1828 and 1873.
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This entry incorporates text from “Clarissa Munger Badger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.