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…
Read more
This is the date written in the corner of the earliest known drawing by Ellen Hutchins, and now in a bound volume of over 230 of them held in the Archives at Kew Gardens. We know that Ellen made her first ever drawing of a part of a seaweed in July 1808, and that by…
Read more
Today marks a significant date in Ellen’s Story for two reasons. On 27th July 1808, 210 years ago, she wrote to fellow botanist, Dawson Turner, to tell him of her discovery of a particular seaweed, Fucus tomentosus, in fruit, and that she had made a drawing of it. She wrote “I had great pleasure in…
Read more
