1. Lucy Way Sistare Say was an American naturalist and scientific artist.
14 Facts About Lucy Say
1. 2.
Lucy Say became the first female member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia on October 26,1841.
3.
Lucy Say's first known education was at a Pestalozzian girls school in Philadelphia, operated by Marie Duclos Fretageot.
4.
Lucy Say studied illustration under French naturalist and illustrator Charles Alexandre Lesueur and John James Audubon.
5.
Lucy Say met her future husband, Thomas Say, through other artists and naturalists at the Fretageot school.
6.
Lucy Say taught illustration in New Harmony while her husband carried out scientific research expeditions; among her students were David Dale Owen and Richard Owen, Indiana's first and third state geologists.
7.
Lucy Say's drawing and painting skills were applied in earnest when she undertook to illustrate Thomas's monographic work, American Conchology.
8.
Besides furnishing drawings for 66 of the work's 68 plates, Lucy Say performed much of the painstaking coloring of individual impressions, which came to number in the thousands.
9.
Lucy Say was assisted in this task by two of engraver Cornelius Tiebout's children, Henry and Caroline.
10.
Lucy Say devoted her remaining years to supporting the study of natural sciences and maintaining her late husband's reputation.
11.
Lucy Say donated his entomological collection and library to the ANSP.
12.
In 1840, Lucy Say began a correspondence with Samuel Stehman Haldeman, whom she viewed as a capable successor to her husband's research in conchology and entomology.
13.
Lucy Say formed a small cabinet of her own and exchanged shell specimens with Haldeman.
14.
Lucy Say was elected the first female member of the ANSP on 26 October 1841, and a member of its Conchological Section in 1868.