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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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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On 29th May 1811, Ellen Hutchins wrote to Dawson Turner, just after she had received various things from him. He had sent a parcel of engravings of liverworts made by William Jackson Hooker for his book, British Jungermanniae, and a long list of comments from William Borrer, a specialist on lichens, giving Ellen help to…
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Ellen could wait no longer for a letter from him, she felt that she must send her latest find, the fruit of a lichen, to Dawson Turner with a letter, written on 7th May 1811, 210 years ago today. This is the fourth in a series of five letters, written On This Day 210 years…
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On 9th April, 210 years ago today, Ellen answered a letter that she had just received from Dawson Turner, written on 25th March. His letter to Ellen has survived and you can read it HERE. Ellen’s letter written on 9th April 1811 is HERE. This is letter three of a set of five letters. The…
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Just two weeks since her last letter of 8th March, Ellen again wrote to Dawson Turner, botanist and banker of Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. Ellen had recently turned 26 years old, her birthday was on 17th March (St Patrick’s Day). She had received a letter from Dawson Turner (the letter has not survived) in which he…
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8th March 2021, International Women’s Day, and Bantry Library has chosen Ellen Hutchins as their local champion, an example of a woman who has “broken the mould” and achieved what might have been considered unachievable in their time. Ellen studied the cryptogams – non-flowering plants – and sought to increase our understanding of them, at…
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210 years ago today, Ellen wrote to her youngest brother, Sam. The following portions of the letter deal with her botanising, her attempts to get a copy of Lewis Dillwyn’s book British Conferva, a gift of plants on its way to her, and her cousin Thomas Taylor, also a botanist. Ballylickey June 18th 1807 My dear…
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Many letters of Ellen’s have survived and are the most important resource in discovering her story. There are one hundred and twenty letters between her and fellow botanist, Dawson Turner. Those from Dawson Turner to Ellen are held by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and those from Ellen to Turner are at Trinity College Cambridge.…
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