Lucy Evelyn Cheesman was a British entomologist and traveller.
21 Facts About Evelyn Cheesman
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Between 1924 and 1952, Cheesman went on eight solo expeditions in the South Pacific, and collected over 70,000 specimens, which she accompanied with sketches and notes.
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Lucy Evelyn Cheesman was one of five children of Florence Maud Tassell and Robert Cheesman, born 8 October 1881.
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Evelyn Cheesman taught herself French and German by travelling in both countries.
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Interested in the natural world, Evelyn Cheesman was unable to train for a career as a veterinary surgeon because the Royal Veterinary College did not accept women students in 1906.
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In May 1917, Evelyn Cheesman took up the position of Assistant Curator of Insects at London Zoo.
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Evelyn Cheesman considered the expedition to be disorganised, and left it at Tahiti, along with Cyril Crossland.
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Evelyn Cheesman spent most of the next twelve years on expeditions, travelling to New Guinea, the New Hebrides and other islands in the Pacific Ocean.
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Evelyn Cheesman treated indigenous populations with respect, learning from them, and was known in the islands as 'the woman who walks' and 'the lady of the mountains'.
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Evelyn Cheesman assisted at the Natural History Museum for many years as an unpaid volunteer.
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Evelyn Cheesman supported herself with the income from her writing, living frugally.
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Evelyn Cheesman was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1955 New Year Honours, and was granted a civil list pension in the same year for her contributions to entomology, giving her some financial security.
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Evelyn Cheesman's older brother, Colonel Robert Ernest Cheesman, was a desert explorer, a diplomat in Iraq, Arabia and Ethiopia, and the author of In Unknown Arabia and other works.
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Evelyn Cheesman made the first systematic studies of the insect life of the islands she visited in the South Pacific.
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Evelyn Cheesman's findings challenged the belief of her time that insect species of the south-west Pacific were most closely related to those of Australia.
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Evelyn Cheesman's work supported theories about the spread of populations in the area that indicated life in New Guinea was Asian in origin rather than Australian.
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Evelyn Cheesman named the genus Buysmania after Maarten Buysman, who collected insect specimens on Java.
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Evelyn Cheesman collected reptiles and amphibians, and several New Guinea species were named in her honour:.
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In 2013, Evelyn Cheesman was credited as the discoverer of one of the very few blue-flowered epiphytic orchids known to exist, Dendrobium azureum.
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Evelyn Cheesman describes collecting the orchids in her book Six-legged Snakes in New Guinea:.
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Evelyn Cheesman was the author of many books and scientific articles on entomology and her travels.