Saturday 11th February 2023

Open House at the Ellen Hutchins Reading Room and Archives

Saturday 11th February from 10:30am to 12:30pm

at the Ellen Hutchins Building, Lee Road, Cork T23 XE10 with easy parking

Free of charge

Drop in, see the archives, displays and film, browse the books, have your questions answered at this free event.

To celebrate Ireland’s first female botanist and to mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science the Ellen Hutchins Reading Room in the UCC Environmental Research Institute (ERI) is holding its first Open House.

Established in September 2022 when the former ERI Lee Road Building was renamed the Ellen Hutchins Building, the room has a collection of books on botany, biodiversity and caring for plants and the planet. There is a display, a short film and information on Ellen’s life and work as botanist of Bantry Bay. See beautiful seaweed specimens and a small exhibition on correspondence from the early 1800s including postage stamps and seals.

The Ellen Hutchins Archives Cabinet displays one of Ellen’s watercolour drawings of seaweed, some of her letters, books she owned, as well as botany books related to her story.

This is a joint event of the Ellen Hutchins Festival and the Environmental Research Institute of UCC.

Significant dates

The 9th February is the anniversary of Ellen’s death in 1815, aged just 29. The date is now perfectly placed between the Herstory celebrations on the first St Brigid’s Day National Holiday on Monday 6th February and the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on Saturday 11th February.

As well as the Open House on 11th February, the Ellen Hutchins Festival is launching its first podcast – Seaweed & Sealing Wax 2: letters from 1812 with botanical art and poetry on Thursday 9th February. See Current / Upcoming Events for further information.