Marianne North
English Naturalist and Flower Painter
1830 – 1890 A.D.

Marianne North, an English naturalist and flower-painter, born at Hastings, the eldest daughter of a Norfolk land owner. On the death of her father in 1869 she resolved to realize her early ambition of painting the flora of distant countries.

In 1871 – 1872 she went to Canada, the United States and Jamaica, and spent a year in Brazil, where she did much of her work at a hut in the depths of a forest. In 1875 she began a journey round the world, and for two years was occupied in painting the flora of California, Japan, Borneo, Java, and Ceylon.

After another year spent in India she returned and exhibited a number of her drawings in London. Her subsequent offer to present the collection to the botanical gardens at Kew was accepted, and new buildings were erected for their exhibition.

Miss North made several other visits to foreign countries, and the scientific accuracy with which she represented plant life in all parts of the world gives her work a permanent value.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.