Anniversaries – 210th and 10th Today, 9th February 2025, is, for a variety of reasons, a significant date for the Ellen Hutchins Festival. It is the 210th anniversary of Ellen Hutchins’ death and the 10th anniversary of the announcement of an Ellen Hutchins Festival in 2015. Correspondence completed Today also marks completion of…
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On This Day, 215 years ago, 28th January 1810, Dawson Turner wrote again to Ellen Hutchins. Read the letter HERE.This was an unusually short letter, with its main purpose being the list it contained, giving Dawson Turner’s opinions on specimens of lichens sent to him by Ellen. He was not able to name all the…
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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…
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215 years ago today and just five days after her last letter to him, Ellen wrote again to Dawson Turner. Read the whole letter HERE. This letter is an interesting one in showing many aspects of Ellen’s character, both as a person and as a botanist. In it she shows her dedication to her caring…
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Ellen Hutchins wrote to Dawson Turner, beginning her letter with: How shall I thank you, my dear Sir, for your kind wish to gratify me by writing as soon as my little parcel arrived, & for the pleasure your letter gave me. Its arrival on New Year’s day I take as a good omen, &…
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Dawson Turner’s letter to Ellen on 1st November, ‘On This Day’ 210 years ago, expresses his relief at the news, heard from Thomas Taylor, that Ellen was thought to be recovering from her ‘dreadful illness’ and ‘even pronounced to be out of danger’. Dawson Turner repeated his hope that Ellen would be able to journey…
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On this day, 19th April, in 1808, Dawson Turner wrote to Ellen Hutchins. His letter includes a piece of moss – Splachnum ampullaceum – which he calls “a most beautiful plant”. Ellen had written in March that she was “busy preserving mosses, at which I have been employed almost night and day since I got…
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Dawson Turner’s letter to Ellen written on 12th February, 210 years ago, in 1814, is HERE. In it he wrote “It was but 4 nights ago that I had the gratification of telling the world what I thought of you & what I owed to you, while describing Fucus fruticulosus, of which you yourself furnished…
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The significant dates explained: 9th February is the anniversary of Ellen’s death in 1815, aged just 29. The date is now perfectly placed between St Brigid’s Day National Holiday, on Monday 5th February this year, and the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11th February. And the two events: Both of these…
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Ellen’s letter to Dawson Turner written on this day, 18th January, 210 years ago, in 1814 is HERE. Ellen thanked her ‘dear good friend for his two long kind letters’ and wrote about her ill health and her mother. She mentioned the weather and then she responded to Dawson Turner’s recent letter to her. Ellen’s…
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