Margaret Fountaine

Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine (* May 16, 1862 Norwich, † April 21, 1940 in Trinidad ) was a British Lepidopterologin and illustrator of the Victorian era.

Life

Margaret Fountaine was the eldest of seven children of John Fountaine, a pastor and Mary Isabella Lee. She was a masterful illustrator of botanical subjects and had excellent gains on countless trips through Europe, Middle East, East and West Africa, India, Tibet, USA, Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies knowledge about butterflies.

Margaret Fountaine was on their trips to expert - many butterflies in her collection she raised herself from eggs or caterpillars. 22,000 specimens are located and known under the name Fountaine - Neimy Collection in Norwich Castle Museum. Your sketchbooks that reflect in detail the life cycle and individual development stages of butterflies are kept at the Natural History Museum in London.

At age 21, Margaret was betrothed, the marriage was not consummated by various circumstances. With 27 Margaret was financially independent through an inheritance from her family. In 1895 she began the well-known botanist and entomologist Henry John Elwes to visit ( 1846-1922 ) and was inspired by his work itself to build a library and take a first collector's trip to Sicily.

Inspired by the development of the modern bicycle, she took a bike ride through France in 1897 and a year later, together with her sister, a bike ride through Italy, where they always extended their collection. 1898, she was elected Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London. Fountain also published a large number of their study results in appropriate journals.

1901 Margaret Fountaine visited Damascus for the first time, where she met Khalil Neimy ( 1877-1928 ) and hired him as a translator and guide. With Neimy she married a 27 -year work and travel community, which led them to search for butterflies throughout the world.

In 1912 Fountaine together with Neimy the Second International Congress of Entomology at Oxford part.

1940 Margaret Fountaine died aged 78 of a heart attack. She was just looking at our on Mount St. Benedict in Trinidad and was buried in an unmarked grave in Trinidad.

Margaret Fountaine left several diary volumes, started with 16 which were eligible according to their will until 1978, 100 years after its first entry published. At over 3000 pages creates a passionate female biography in the Victorian era. Each of the twelve volumes will begin on 15 April and a photographic recording of herself and describes her love for traveling and for butterflies, but also social difficulties, which brought this enthusiasm with you.

Works (selection)

• 862 original water-color drawings of Lepidoptera larvae and pupae with their food plants, 1907-1939.
• Love Among the Butterflies: Travels and Adventures of a Victorian Lady. Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1980