Mary Emily Eaton
Encyclopedia
Nathaniel Lord Britton
Nathaniel Lord Britton was an American botanist and taxonomist who founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York. Britton was born in New Dorp in Staten Island, New York...
& Rose
Joseph Nelson Rose
Joseph Nelson Rose was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana. His father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated from high school in Liberty, Indiana....
's "The Cactaceae", published between 1919 and 1923.
Life
She attended private schools in London, and received formal tuition in art at the Taunton School of ArtSomerset College of Arts and Technology
Somerset College of Arts and Technology ' is a community college based in Taunton, in the county of Somerset, England. It was formed in 1974 after the merger of Somerset College of Art and Taunton Technical College. The college provides further and higher education courses, as well as a variety of...
, also attending classes at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
in South Kensington
South Kensington
South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....
, and the Chelsea Polytechnic.
She worked for a time as a painter of Worcester porcelain, before going to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
in 1909 to visit her siblings. She stayed for two years, and began painting detailed studies of butterflies and moths. In June 1911 she left for New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and was to remain there until January 1932, employed by The New York Botanical Garden.
She was principal illustrator for the journal "Addisonia" painting the vast majority of 800 plates and working on the plates and line drawings used in Britton & Rose's "The Cactaceae". Her illustrations also appeared in the National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...
.
She was awarded the silver-gilt Grenfelt Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society
Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
in 1922. Six hundred of her watercolours are part of the permanent collections of the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
, The New York Botanical Garden, and the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation also has a number of her works. She died at Cossington
Cossington
Cossington is the name of several settlements in England:* Cossington, Kent is a small settlement in Kent, home of a possible megalithic site* Cossington, Leicestershire is a village in the Soar Valley in Leicestershire...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
.