15 Facts About Margaret Mee

Margaret Mee was one of the first environmentalists to draw attention to the impact of large-scale mining and deforestation on the Amazon Basin.

Margaret Mee addressed the TUC in 1937, proposing the raising of the school-leaving age and was offered, but declined, a job with Ernest Bevin.

Margaret Mee married Greville Mee, her second husband, in 1980.

Margaret Mee moved to Brazil in 1952 to teach art in the British school of Sao Paulo, where Greville Mee later joined her.

Margaret Mee then became a botanical artist for Sao Paulo's Instituto de Botanica in 1958, exploring the rainforest and more specifically Amazonas state from 1964, painting the plants she saw, some new to science, as well as collecting some for later illustration.

Margaret Mee created 400 folios of gouache illustrations, 40 sketchbooks, and 15 diaries.

Margaret Mee travelled to Washington DC, USA, in 1964 and briefly to England in 1968 for the exhibition and publication of her book, Flowers of the Brazilian Forests.

Margaret Mee gave a lecture in Washington DC, USA in 1967.

Margaret Mee returned to Brazil and joined protests to draw international attention to the deforestation of the Amazon region.

Margaret Mee travelled to London in 1988 for the publication of her book In Search of Flowers of the Amazon Forests.

Margaret Mee died following a car crash in Seagrave, Leicestershire, on 30 November 1988.

In 1976 Margaret Mee was awarded the MBE for services to Brazilian botany and a fellowship of the Linnean Society in 1986.

Margaret Mee received recognition in Brazil including an honorary citizenship of Rio in 1975 and the Brazilian order of Cruzeiro do Sul in 1979.

In 1990 Margaret Mee was recognised for her environmental achievements by The United Nations Environment Programme and added to its Global 500 Roll of Honour.

In Search of Flowers of the Amazon Forests, the Diaries of botanical artist Margaret Mee written between 1956 and 1988, was published in 1988 and included an illustrated account of Mee's expeditions to the Amazonian forests, the last of which was in search of the elusive Selenicereus cacti, known as the Amazon Moonflower, opening at night.