The Legacy of Welsh Botanist Jessie Gwendoline O’Callaghan (née Insole; 1882–1932)

Abstract

This biographical paper examines the background of collections comprising illustrations of fungi and herbarium specimens attributed to Jessie O’Callaghan, held by the Amgueddfa Cymru—Museum Wales. O’Callaghan was a privileged, wealthy woman born in the Welsh parish of Llandaff, which, in 1922, was incorporated into Cardiff, now Wales’ capital city. Upon her marriage in 1906 she moved to Ireland, but eventually settled in the English county of Surrey. Throughout her life she had an enduring interest in botany, seeking, collecting, painting, and cultivating rare plants. She shared this passion with Eleanor Vachell, the well-regarded Welsh amateur botanist, whom she had known since childhood. Entries in Eleanor’s diaries, and their letters, together with a surviving photograph album, provide fascinating insights into Jessie’s life. The paper also speculates on the fate of O’Callaghan’s collection of 595 watercolour paintings of wild flowers, loaned to the Museum by her daughter in 1932, but later returned to her.