Further Information:
Marianne North (1830-1890) was a traveller and botanical artist. She was born in Hastings in 1830 and during her life traveled to Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, Borneo, Java, India and Australia. North was well-respected by Sir Joseph Hooker and 832 of her paintings hang in the Marianne North Gallery at Kew Gardens. Her two-volume autobiography, Recollections of a Happy Life, was published posthumously.
Darwin wrote North on 2 August 1881 to tell her that he is pleased to have seen her Australian pictures, and to comment upon their vividness.
Relevant Gender Resources:
http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/women-and-science
http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/womens-scientific-participation
http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/gender-and-scientific-participation
Primary Sources:
Darwin Correspondence Database, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-13269a
Darwin Correspondence Database, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-13269
North, Marianne. Recollections of a happy life: being the autobiography of Marianne North. London: Macmillan, 1894.
Secondary Source:
Middleton, Dorothy. ‘North, Marianne (1830–1890)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/20311]
ODNB
25,WSL,29