Maria Sibylla Merian (jan 1, 1647 – jan 1, 1717)

Description:

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), Scientific Illustrator and Entomologist

Life:
Born in Germany she combined art and science to be one of the greatest scientific illustrators of all time. In the 1600’s, people could have cared less about insects and viewed them only as a nuisance and referred to them as “beasts of the devil”. Maria, however, felt they were extraordinary. She was married with two children but when she was 31yo, she left her husband and moved with her mother and children to Holland. Here her studies expanded into different species of frogs. At 52yo, she traveled to Suriname, South America (a rare opportunity for anyone, let alone a woman) and was able to learn much about the rainforests and tropical insects.

Contributions to Science:
She was particularly interested in butterflies and published a book in 1679 on metamorphosis, a previously unfounded concept. What often set her apart was that she observed and illustrated live insects where all others observed dead or displayed ones. She captured their life-cycles and habitats - a major contribution to modern ecology. A major contribution was that she paired larval lepidopterans, with the plant on which it fed. Her drawings of Amazonian insects and animals are still collected by amateurs all over the world and her depictions of the struggle among these organisms predates Charles Darwin and Lord Tennyson theories on the struggle for survival and evolution.

Fun facts:
Her portrait was on the German 500 DM banknote and stamps!

Death:
In 1715, Maria suffered a stroke. Despite partial paralysis she continued to work until she passed in 1717.

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