Ellen Hutchins is known for finding several plants new to science, identifying hundreds of species, and for her botanical illustrations in contemporary publications.
20 Facts About Ellen Hutchins
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Ellen Hutchins was from Ballylickey, where her family had a small estate at the head of Bantry Bay, County Cork, Ireland.
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Ellen Hutchins's father, Thomas, was a magistrate who died when she was two years old, leaving his widow Elinor and six surviving children.
4.
Ellen Hutchins was sent to school near Dublin, and while there, her health deteriorated.
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Ellen Hutchins regained her appetite and health, and followed Stokes advice to take up natural history as a healthy hobby.
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Ellen Hutchins's health declined again and by late 1812 she was seriously ill.
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Ellen Hutchins died on 9 February 1815 after a long illness in which she had been taking mercury for her liver.
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Ellen Hutchins's grave was unmarked, but a plaque was erected in 2002 by the Hutchins family in their private family burial ground.
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Ellen Hutchins sometimes utilized a style of letter writing used to save postal charges called a crossed letter in which the page is turned sideways and writing is continued at right-angles to the first set of sentences.
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Ellen Hutchins focused on botany and spent much time out of doors accompanied by the indoor occupations of identifying, recording and drawing the plants she collected.
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Ellen Hutchins studied plants, specialising in the Cryptogams such as mosses, liverworts, lichen, and seaweeds.
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Ellen Hutchins learnt quickly and clearly had a gift for plant identification, produced very detailed watercolour drawings, and meticulously prepared specimens.
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Ellen Hutchins sent samples to Stokes which he passed on to other botanists.
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Ellen Hutchins helped her in the classification of the plants she was collecting and she contributed to his Flora Hibernica.
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Ellen Hutchins's rare finds included lichens and she contributed to Lewis Weston Dillwyn's work British Confervae.
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Ellen Hutchins was a keen gardener, and she tended plants including ones sent to her by Mackay, in a field at Ballylickey, known as Miss Ellen's Garden.
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Ellen Hutchins was at her happiest in the garden, or out in her little boat, gathering seaweeds, which she then brought home to classify and paint.
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Ellen Hutchins bequeathed her collection of plant specimens to Dawson Turner and many are now in the Natural History Museum, London.
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Ellen Hutchins's drawings were given by her sister in law, Matilda, to Dawson Turner, and over two hundred of her drawings of seaweeds are now in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with some in store at Sheffield City Museum.
20.
An Ellen Hutchins Festival was held in and around Bantry in 2015 and this has now become an annual event.