Her Scientific Achievements

Ellen Hutchins

On this page you can find information about Ellen the scientist, read about Ellen’s artistic talents (which she used to serve science), see some of her drawings of seaweeds, and learn about plants named after Ellen.

Ellen was a pioneering botanist who specialised in a difficult branch of botany, that of the non-flowering plants or cryptogams. She discovered many plants new to science and made a significant contribution to the understanding of these plants. She was highly respected by her fellow botanists and many named plants after her in recognition of her scientific achievements.

In addition to being an outstanding scientist, Ellen was also a talented botanical artist. Botanical drawings serve science in a very important way.

Ellen Hutchins: Serious Scientist

In her short life (she died just before her thirtieth birthday) Ellen Hutchins of Ballylickey found a significant number of new species of non-flowering plants (mosses, seaweeds and lichens) and was a serious scientist before the word ‘scientist’ was even invented in 1833.

Ellen was active as a botanist between 1805 and 1812, based at home in Ballylickey, on the shores of Bantry Bay, and fitting her studies around caring for her elderly and frail mother and a disabled brother. Ellen searched seashore, woodland, peat bog, mountainside, islands, riverbanks, and her own garden for specimens, and back home she matched them to those already known to botanists and sent those that she considered new to fellow botanists for confirmation and publication.

Her scientific skills in identifying, preserving, and describing the plants were added to by her incredible artistic skill in drawing them. Leading botanists of the day, including James Mackay in Dublin, Lewis Dillwyn in Wales, Dawson Turner and William Hooker in England, were keen to receive her materials. Engravings of her drawings and her descriptions appeared in the notable botanical publications of her day, and the authors such as William Hooker, (later first Director of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London) were full of praise for Ellen, recognising the significant contribution that she had made to the understanding of these branches of botany, and honouring her by naming plants after her.

Her reputation continued through the next generations of those studying the non-flowering plants, known as cryptogamists, and within that grouping, bryologists who study mosses and liverworts, algologists who study seaweed (marine algae), and lichenologists who study lichens. In these specialist fields today, her name is still known and her status as a significant scientist recognised. She appears on published lists of Irish Scientists and Irish Women Scientists, and is widely regarded as Ireland’s First Female Botanist.

Natural History Pioneer

Below is a panel from the exhibition, Ellen Hutchins: the Young Woman, her Work and and her World. Explore around the panel for information about Ellen’s scientific achievements and the plants (and shells) that she found. You can view and download a high resolution of the panel here. It was first shown in Bantry Library in 2015 and then in the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin in 2017.

Ellen as Botanical Artist

See this website’s page Ellen Hutchins: botanical artist, or a short paper written for the Bantry Historical Society in 2020, ‘She painted seaweeds from the seashore’.

Drawings of Seaweed

(1) Fucus asparagoides, 1811 (HFC)

(2) Conferva pedicellata, in Lewis Dillwyn’s book British Confervae (KEW)

(3) Conferva Brodiaei, in Lewis Dillwyn’s book British Confervae (KEW)

Plants Named After Ellen

Liverwort:
Hutchins’ Hollywort
(Jubula hutchinsiae)

Photo:
Robert Thompson

Lichen:
Enterographa hutchinsiae

Photo: Jenny Seawright
www.irishlichens.ie

Moss:
Hutchins’ Pincushion
(Ulota hutchinsiae)

Photo : Rory Hodd

Liverwort:
Herbertus hutchinsiae

Photo: Rory Hodd

Liverwort:
Herbertus hutchinsiae with Polytrichum commune (stars)

Photo: Robert Thompson

Click on the highlighted binomial names above to access hyperlinks to Ellen’s specimens in the NHM Data Portal catalogue records. These are mostly Type Specimens.

Click on the photos to open a PDF of the Natural History Pioneer panel with more information on these.

Key to abbreviations used in photo captions

HFC – Hutchins Family Collection KEW – Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London NHM – Natural History Museum London TCC – Trinity College Cambridge TCD – Trinity College Dublin

Basket

Her Scientific Achievements

Ellen Hutchins