Book of Beatrix Potter’s drawings in the Armitt Collection.
Thanks to Sam Mason, who has blogged about Beatrix Potter (later Mrs Heelis) here and suggested her for Grandma got STEM. Sam shared that this biography
describes her contributions to mycology (study of fungi), ignored at the time due to her sex and class. The biography also describes how Potter’s books for children introduced them to natural history and made Potter rich enough to buy large properties in the Lake District. Land ownership led to her contributions to the nascent National Parks movement and to the conservation of livestock breeds.
Chet Raymo also blogs about Potter, noting that
In the October 1972 issue of Natural History Magazine, Naomi Gilpatrick said Potter “would have liked to discuss her growing portfolio of fungus and lichen drawings with some of the scientists at the Botanic Gardens. She had questions to ask — small, moot points that weren’t touched upon in any of the books she had consulted. . . Her own observations, made not only in her third-floor study but also on frequent holidays to seacoast towns with her father, a leisure-class photographer, had brought her to the forefront of what was known about lichens and fungi.”
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Thank you for featuring Beatrix Potter and also for mentioning Chet Raymo, who I hadn’t heard of before. Here’s what he wrote about Potter http://www.sciencemusings.com/2006/10/sharp-and-half-sharp_29.html