Achton, Inger
Dates
- Existence: 1910 - 2016
Summary
Inger Achton Dix (1910-2016) was an AMNH artist in the Illustrator Corps from February 2, 1947 to March 31, 1948.
Dix was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. She attended art schools in Copenhagen and Berlin. After she graduated, a zoologist taught her scientific illustration. She was hired to catalogue the 3,000-piece Mongolian collection of Danish explorer Henning Haslund-Christensen at the National Museum of Copenhagen, reproducing the ornate headdresses, tents and household items on paper.
In 1947, she arrived in New York with $50 in her pocket and started working at the AMNH in the Illustrator Corps department. One of her assignments was to sketch fossils for anthropologist Franz Weidenreich and for Dr. Helge Larsen, who had recommended her for the job.
After marrying Charles Dix in 1950 she moved to Pasadena and worked for Caltech, where she drew the bones of the ground sloth. She stopped working as a professional illustrator in 1952 but continued to draw and paint indepedently.
