210 years ago, On This Day – 16th December 1812, Ellen wrote to Dawson Turner again, just nine days after her last letter and in today’s letter she said that she would write again in a few days. The letter she was responding to has not survived. The spur to write, even though she was…
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On this day 210 years ago, 7th December 1812, Ellen Hutchins wrote to Dawson Turner, beginning “How sweet a preparation of the medium of life is a kind friend’s letter!” By 1812, they had been corresponding for five years and a strong and deep friendship had developed between them. The letter covers many topics —…
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Today, 11th February, is International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Ellen Hutchins was a serious scientist years before the word scientist was invented (in 1833). Most of her botanising round the shores of Bantry Bay and in the Caha mountains between 1805 and 1813 was done alone, but she does write about a…
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Here it is, the full text of the twenty four surviving letters exchanged between Ellen Hutchins and Dawson Turner in 1811 (available in three PDFs). Their correspondence is a wonderful read, and has value for so many different reasons. It can be enjoyed as an example of letter writing or life writing of the period,…
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On this day, 29th November 1811, 210 years ago, Ellen wrote to Dawson Turner. The letter is a delightful one, with passages about the young girl who helped Ellen with her work on seaweeds, lots about lichens Ellen has found and her enthusiasm for William Jackson Hooker’s drawings (plates) of liverworts. She thanks Dawson Turner…
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Originally A Zoom performance / talk, Tuesday 14th December 2021 (postponed from 7th December because of Storm Barra), now available as a recorded webinar, price €6 for the online shop HERE How did their friendship grow? An opportunity to live through a moment in time and a slice of two lives, through their letters. In…
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The two films and other new materials here on the early 1800s page of this website are the culmination of a strand of work by Team Ellen over the past two years or more. The Team set out to understand practical details of the period in which Ellen was botanizing and letter writing. What clothes…
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If you read my blog back in February, Ellen and the Bryophytes, you will know that mosses were a source of delight to Ellen Hutchins. Mosses are back as the focus for Team Ellen as we have just launched Join our Moss Hunt, designed for 6 to 12 year olds, and suitable for use anywhere…
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The Festival starts in a week’s time, on Saturday 14th and this year contains a mix of self guided or DIY events, two online art workshops and in-person outdoor events in special places from Bantry through Ballylickey, Coomhola and Glengarriff to Adrigole and up to Kealkil and Gougane Barra. With three ways of taking part,…
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The Ellen Hutchins Festival team is delighted with its latest publication — a beautiful book on lichens, by Paul Whelan, with stunning colour photographs and clear descriptions of 40 of the most common species that you can find in Glengarriff Woodlands and Harbour in West Cork. The lack of any good book on lichens is…
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