- PAINTER
- Traveled the world for nearly thirty years to paint hundreds of plants
- DISCOVERED many new plant species
- Contrary to conventional botanical illustrators of the time, who pictured specimens isolated, she drew plants in their native settings and with native animals
- Traveled alone, without a chaperone, which was considered dangerous and uncivilized for a lady of her wealth and social stature
- Visited six continents and many countries, including Japan, Australia, Jamaica, United States, Brazil, Borneo, Java, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and South Africa
- Sent THOUSANDS of specimens to renowned botanist Sir Joseph Hooker
- Many plants were named after her (including the one pictured above, native to Borneo)
- When traditional galleries were reluctant to showcase her work, she designed and funded the construction of her own gallery, the Marianne North Gallery, housing more than 800 of her paintings
- Several of the plant species she painted are now extinct
- (By the way -- did you notice that the photograph above was taken by Julia Margaret Cameron?)
Not So Awesome
Though North often flouted the restrictions society placed on women, she did not support women's suffrage, writing in her diary that she "would be terribly bored by the possession of a vote."
Bibliography: Gates, Barbara T. "North, Marianne." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Vol. 3, Oxford University Press, 2008, 357-358.
Ross, Michael E. A World of Her Own: 24 Amazing Women Explorers and Adventurers. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2014. Print.
Birkett, Dea. (2019, March 30). Victorian lady travellers aren't feminist role models - they were tyrants. https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/03/victorian-lady-travellers-arent-feminist-role-models-they-were-tyrants/
Ross, Michael E. A World of Her Own: 24 Amazing Women Explorers and Adventurers. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2014. Print.
Birkett, Dea. (2019, March 30). Victorian lady travellers aren't feminist role models - they were tyrants. https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/03/victorian-lady-travellers-arent-feminist-role-models-they-were-tyrants/
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