Atkinson, Caroline Louisa Waring (1834 - 1872)

Caroline Atkinson was home-educated in NSW, a keen student of natural history and an accomplished botanical illustrator. She was also a populariser of science and published in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Horticultural Magazine.

• Calvert, Caroline (married name)

Taught by her mother, Atkinson developed a keen interest in botany and zoology. She wrote popular articles on botany, made drawings and sent numerous specimens to eminent botanists including William Woolls and Ferdinand von Mueller (q.v.). She was also an able taxidermist.

Atkinson was commemorated in the naming of the Loranthaceous genus Atkinsonia, also Erechtites atkinsoniae and Epacris calvertiana. A horticulturally distinct fern, ranking as a form of Doodia caudata, was named Doodia atkinsonii in her honour.

Atkinson married James Snowdon Calvert.

Books

• Vries-Evans, Susanna De, Pioneer Women, Pioneer Land: Yesterday's Tall Poppies Angus & Robertson, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1987, 280 pp. [ Details... ]

Book Sections

• Chisholm, A.H., 'Atkinson, Caroline Louisa Waring (1834-1872), naturalist and writer', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 3, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1969, pp. 59-60. [ Details... ]

Journal Articles

• Margaret, Swann, 'Mrs. Meredith and Miss Atkinson, Writers and Naturalists', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 15, 1929, pp. 1-29. [ Details... ]

See also

• Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 'Where are the Women in Australian science?', 22 August 2003, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/wisa/wisa.html. [ Details... ]