Ellen Hutchins and the Linnean Society
On This Day, 215 years ago, 23rd January 1810, Dawson Turner wrote to Ellen Hutchins starting the process of responding to two letters from her and a parcel recently received. Read the whole letter HERE.
The letter helps us see the world of botanical study at Ellen’s time and gives significant information about how Ellen was viewed by some eminent botanists. My research on it has also released a string of coincidences of time, place and person.
A dozen, please
Towards the end of the letter, Dawson Turner asked if Ellen could collect and send a dozen specimens of one plant, the carnivorous flat-leaved or intermediate bladderwort (Utricularia intermedia). Wanting a dozen specimens is some indication of how many fellow botanists he was in regular contact with and we know that when they met, either at each others’ houses or at Linnean Society meetings or similar, they would exchange specimens. It also links to why Ellen’s specimens are found in so many different collections and herbaria. She does not put her name on the sheets, but usually her hand writing can be identified or some one else, often Dawson Turner, has written ‘Miss Hutchins’ at the bottom.
High esteem
Two passages in the letter show the high level of esteem that Dawson Turner had for Ellen as a botanist. He gave the ID for two liverworts (Jungermanniae) then for the Rivulariae (algae) he wrote: “The Rivulariae I leave in your hands: you, & only you, must teach us to form our opinions of them, for nobody else has equal opportunities or equal industry & ability.”
Right person, right place, right time
As I have said before in these posts, repeating what Donal Synnott (ex Director of Glasnevin) said to me; Ellen was very much the right person, in the right place, at the right time. The “equal opportunities” that Dawson Turner refers to relates to Bantry Bay, Ellen’s home territory, with its great botanical wealth. The “industry & ability” describe Ellen’s dedication, skills and knowledge.
Also in the letter is evidence of the third element, it being the right time. Ellen was actively botanising from 1805 to 1813, and while these are early years of the nineteenth century, it was within what is often called the long eighteenth century and is very different from the Victorian period that tends to dominate our view of the nineteenth century. Looking at botany, in this period there were few universities, compared to later in the nineteenth century – UCC for instance was founded in 1845. Trinity College Dublin had a Professor of Botany (since 1711) as did other Universities in Europe. However, most botanical studies of the day were undertaken by private individuals working from home each with their own herbarium of dried specimens, their own microscope, books and a network of colleagues. They used correspondence as the main means of communication and sent each other letters, specimens and sometimes drawings. They were amateurs, doing it in their own time and without payment.
The learned societies such as the Royal Cork Institution (founded in 1803 and with the Botanic Garden established in 1806), the Royal Dublin Society, and the Linnean Society in London (founded in 1788 by James Edward Smith) were an important part of the botanists’ landscape, with the talks they organised and the papers they published in their journals, often called Transactions.
Among Dawson Turner’s many botanical correspondents there were a few women, including Mrs Amelia Griffiths, Elizabeth Hill and the Countess of Aylesford. The Victorian craze for ferns and the flurry of interest in pressing seaweeds for their beauty came much later. These women, and Ellen Hutchins, were serious botanists seeking to increase the understanding of plants and seaweeds.
The learned societies were men only institutions, as were the universities in Ellen’s lifetime and for many years afterwards in most cases. The Linnean Society admitted women in 1904, as did Trinity College Dublin, while the Royal Society (London) first elected women as fellows in 1945.
The idea of Ellen living at the right time is that private individuals (amateurs) contributed in a major way to botany, before the universities ‘took over’, which restricted involvement by women.
Quite impressive
What is very interesting in this letter, which I understand has not before been transcribed and made available publicly, is that we see both Dawson Turner and Edward James Smith, President and founder of the Linnean Society, asking Ellen Hutchins to describe the new Confervae she had found for publication in the Society’s Transactions. There does not seem to be any sense of Ellen being discriminated against for being a woman.
I emailed the Linnean Society to ask about the Society’s attitude towards women contributing to their Transactions in the early 1800s. The Head of Collections, Dr Isabelle Charmantier replied that before 1904:
‘Women had to be sponsored by Fellows (all male, at that point) either to submit a paper to be presented at a meeting of the Society, and potentially thereafter published in one of the Society’s journals, or to attend a meeting. So it was not unheard of, but the lady would have needed to have the right connections. I think it is quite impressive that Ellen Hutchins was asked to do so, and a testament to her recognition in learned circles.’
Coincidences galore
Dr Charmantier told me that she had holidayed in West Cork last summer and was currently reading Wild Atlantic Women by Gráinne Lyons which includes a chapter on Ellen. I had met Gráinne and helped her with her research and writing on Ellen, been to the London book launch, then she had come to Bantry to read and speak at the Ellen Hutchins Festival in 2023.
And the coincidences continue, as today I was on a ‘behind the scenes’ tour at the Linnean Society in London with Dr Charmantier, booked some time ago through the London Appreciation Society without knowledge of the significance of the date. The featured image above is of Dr Charmantier in the Linnean Collection with a copy of Systema Naturae. After the tour, she kindly showed me the three specimens of Ellen’s that are held in the Smith Collection, one, a moss, Gymnostomum imberbe, dated 1810. (See below for photo or use the link.)
Problems with parcels
The Mr Taylor mentioned in the letters was a government official based at Dublin Castle who had helped send parcels between Ellen and Dawson Turner.
Dante
After correspondence about translations of Dante’s work, Dawson Turner sent Ellen the edition by the translator that he recommended, Henry Cary. In the Ellen Hutchins archives there are two volumes that we believe are those he sent to her.
Read the whole of the letter of 23rd January 1810 HERE.
The next letter in the correspondence is another one from Dawson Turner to Ellen Hutchins on 28th January 1810 which will be covered in a post here.
The Linnean Society and Ellen Hutchins Linnean Society – Searching on Ellen Hutchins: three specimens in the Smith Collection and mentions of Ellen in letters – letters from Thomas Hincks (Royal Cork Institution), Samuel Goodenough (Bishop of Carlisle), and Dawson Turner – including one written on 29th January 1810.
Madeline Hutchins: researcher on Ellen and her great, great grandniece
23rd January 2025
Specimen of a moss, Gymnostomum imberbe in the Smith Collection at the Linnean Society, London, collected by Ellen Hutchins.