Mary Elizabeth Barber: South Africa's first lady natural historian

Abstract

An account of the life of a nineteenth century South African frontiers-woman who, without any formal education, made a name for herself as a plant collector and natural historian. Born in England, she emigrated as a child of 2 years of age with her family as one of the British settlers to the Grahamstown area in 1820. From the age of 20 she corresponded with several eminent English biologists, and had scientific papers on botany and entomology published in a number of journals. She was later involved in the early discoveries of diamonds and gold in South Africa. One of her sons was amongst the first to see and paint the Victoria Falls after their discovery by Livingstone. With her younger brother James Henry Bowker she collected and sent back a large number of plants, many of them previously unknown, to the herbarium of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She collaborated with her older brother Thomas Holden Bowker in building up one of the earliest collections of stone-age implements in South Africa, some of which are now in the British Museum.