Tag: Microscope

Ireland's first Female Botanist

Women in Science & moss on the bus stop

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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She finds anything

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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Exhibition Open in Boole Library, UCC, Cork

Monday 15th October, 6pm was the Opening of the Ellen Hutchins, Ireland’s First Female Botanist Exhibition. The exhibition was opened by Astrid Wingler, Professor of Plant BiologyHead of Plant Science, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences and Environmental Research Institute,  University College Cork. Carrie O’Flynn, the Historical Re-enactor featured on the poster (see above) was there…
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Right Person, Right Place, Right Time

Ellen Hutchins of Ballylickey was botanizing in the Bantry Bay area of West Cork, Ireland, long before collecting seaweeds became a fashionable hobby for Victorian ladies. Water Colour of Bantry Bay by Louisa Shore Nightingale (nee. Hutchins) Between 1805 and 1812 Ellen was discovering new seaweeds, mosses and lichens, and sending her specimens and drawings to…
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