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Happy birthday #entomologist & scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)! Her stepdad Jacob Marrel & students trained her as an artist. She began painting insects & plants by 13. She wrote, "I spent my time investigating insects. [...] I realized that other caterpillars produced beautiful butterflies or moths, and that silkworms did the same. This led me to collect all the caterpillars I could find in order to see how they changed".
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She married her stepdad’s apprentice Johann Andreas Graff; they had a daughter & moved to Nurenburg. She contributed income by painting, creating embroidery designs, & teaching drawing lessons to wealthy girls, which allowed her access to fine gardens where she continued collecting & documenting. She published her 1st book of nature illustrations, titled Neues Blumenbuch, in 1675. …
In 1679, she published her insect research in a 3-vol, illustrated book focusing on #insect #metamorphosis. She moved to be with her mother after her stepdad’s death, then to join her half-brother at a Labadist religious community. After her mother's death, she moved to Amsterdam in 1691 & divorced her husband in 1692.
She became curious whether lifecycles of insects collected in Suriname mirrored those of Europe species.
She was able to secure Amsterdam's permission & travel grant to go to Suriname, with her younger daughter Dorothea Maria. She planned a 5 year mission to study insects, making her perhaps the 1st person to plan a proper scientific expedition!
She travelled throughout the colony sketching insects & plants. She criticized the Dutch planters’ treatment of indigenous & enslaved Black people (though she relied upon amerindian slaves & brought an amerindian woman named Indianin back to Holland).
Malaria likely cut her expedition short & forced her return to Holland in 1701. She sold her collected specimen & in 1705 published Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium.
She suffered a stroke in 1715 & died a pauper in 1717. Her daughter Dorothea published her Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis, posthumously. Both Dorothea & Johanna followed their mother's lead & became botanical illustrators.