Distributed for Bodleian Library Publishing
Twenty Women Botanists
A Hidden History of Plant Pioneers
This book celebrates the contribution made by women to our understanding of botany.
From flamboyant bougainvillea to the secretive world of seaweeds, women have introduced many botanical wonders to the world. Yet too often their names and vital contributions have been undervalued, forgotten, or unrecorded—until now. This book tells the stories of remarkable women who led remarkable lives, including the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, a Scot who found botanical jewels in the Arctic, an American behind the founding of the New York Botanical Garden, an intrepid South African, and a young woman who died before she was thirty but is now hailed as “Ireland’s first woman botanist.” While some ventured dauntlessly across the globe, others made groundbreaking discoveries at home through painstaking observation. Still others inspired the next generation or captured rare plants in exquisite art. Although they had neither limitless wealth nor the advantages of equal education, it is on the shoulders of these pioneers that today’s botanists, ecologists, and conservationists stand. Their stories are a revelation.
Table of Contents
Introducing …
The Adventurers
Around the world in 3,000 days (or thereabouts): Jeanne Barret (1740–1807)
The woman with three lives: Maria Graham Callcott (1785–1842)
In a world of wattles and wallabies: Amalie Dietrich (1821–1891)
A Scot in the Arctic: Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889–1982)
The Enquirers
A haven in the Hudson Highlands: Jane Colden (1724–1766)
An Irish pioneer: Ellen Hutchins (1785–1815)
Treasures of South Africa: Mary Elizabeth Bowker Barber (1818–1899)
Sowing the seeds: Ethel Sargant (1863–1918)
The Educators
Botany for beginners: Maria Jacson (1755–1829)
Saving the vineyards: Marguerite de Fitz-James (1830–1915)
A force of nature: Katharine Brandegee (1844–1920)
A life scientific: Sarah Hynes (1859–1938)
The Artists
A compelling metamorphosis: Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717)
A curious woman: Elizabeth Blackwell (1699–1758)
The hand of Buddha in Batavia: Berthe Hoola van Nooten (1817–1892)
A vision of Eden: Marianne North (1830–1890)
The Wives
For better or for worse: Sarah Bowdich Lee (1791–1856)
’Partners in botany’: Sara Plummer Lemmon (1836–1923)
To Turkestan and beyond: Olga Fedchenko (1845–1921)
Britton Rock: Elizabeth Knight Britton (1858–1934)
Further Reading