The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Marie Bentivoglio was the first Australian woman to receive a scholarship to the University of Oxford.

Bentivoglio graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science in 1919. She completed a Diploma in Education in 1920.

She was the first woman to win an 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship to the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, where she gained a Doctorate of Philosophy and a Diploma of Geography.

On return to Sydney, Bentivoglio lectured at both the University of Sydney and the Sydney Teachers College. In 1928 she succeeded Thomas Griffith Taylor as Head of the Department of Geography.

In 1931 she published A physical and practical geography for secondary schools with Frieda Frances Friederich.

In 1936 she travelled to North and Central America, teaching in universities and working in the chemical industry. Whilst teaching plastics at New York University (1952-1960), she studied a new way of packaging fruit and vegetables to stop their deterioration. She had a team working on this and in 1952 they came up with a solution which today we call “cling wrap”.

Marie donated a priceless limited edition of Dante’s Divina Commedia to the State Library of New South Wales; was actively involved with the Dante Alighieri Society; and a financial donor to the State Library of New South Wales, The Sydney Art Gallery, the University of Sydney and others.