Margaret Gatty

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Margaret Gatty

Margaret Gatty , pseudonym Aunt Judy (born June 3, 1809 in Burnham , Essex , † October 4, 1873 in Ecclesfield , Yorkshire ) was an English writer and botanist . Your botanical author abbreviation is " Gatty ".

Childhood and youth

Margaret Gatty was the second daughter of the clergyman Alexander John Scott, ship's chaplain aboard the Victory , in whose arms Lord Nelson died at the Trafalgar and Mary Frances Scott, née. Ryder.
Margaret grew up in the rectory at Burnham on Crouch, where her father served as pastor and vicar for the neighboring parish of Southminster . When Margaret was two years old, her mother died. As a result, Margaret was occasionally placed with relatives by her father. In 1816 the family moved to Catterick . Life there was not easy for Margaret, as she had to take on a large part of the responsibility for family life due to frequent illnesses from her father and his studies.

Since her father had little confidence in the general school system, he decided to teach his daughters at home himself. So it came about that Margaret was able to develop inclinations that were not common for girls of the time. At the age of 10, she became interested in prints, which she then worked on in the British Museum. She learned the technique of making copperplate engravings and continued her education in drawing. Her father promoted her in literature and foreign languages, so that Margaret could read classical works in several languages ​​at an early age. At the age of 17 she translated works by Dante . Against the initial resistance of her father, she married the pastor Alfred Gatty in Ecclesfield near Sheffield in 1839 .

Act

Her father died in 1840. Together with her husband, she published her first book in 1842, which was about her father's biography. She wrote her first own book, The Fairy Godmothers, and Other Tales , at the age of 42. It contains a selection of various stories for children.

In 1855 her first volume in the series Parables from Nature was published , which combines knowledge about nature with moral values ​​in a way that is suitable for children. The publication was preceded by a long process of careful natural history study of specialist literature and personal observations. Gatty's interest in algae and zoophytes led to the publication of the book British Seaweeds in 1862 , which summarized her 14 years of study on the subject. The creation of the work was accompanied by Henry Harvey , author of the Phycologia Britannica . A year later, in 1863, the History of British Seaweeds followed . She illustrated both books herself. In 1870 she published the fifth and final volume of Parables from Nature . This series received international recognition and has been translated into most European languages.

The positive response to books Aunt Judy's Tales (1858), Aunt Judy's Letters (1862), Aunt Judy's Songbook for Children and The Mother's Book of Poetry , published under the pseudonym Aunt Judy , led to the publication of the youth magazine Aunt Judy's Magazine . It was first relocated in 1866. The thematic focus was on stories and articles by various writers of the 19th century. Gatty also contributed with his own texts. Over time, she managed to develop a close relationship with her young readers. The success of the magazine is also attributed to the fact that Gatty was able to see events from the perspective of children and therefore was able to communicate successfully with them.

Gatty gave birth to ten children, eight of whom reached adulthood. Like her father, she encouraged her children to develop scientific and artistic interests. Her second born, Juliana Horatia Ewing , also became a writer.

Appreciation

Margaret Gatty died on October 4, 1873. Her grave is in Ecclesfield Cemetery, near her father's. A stained glass stained glass window in Ecclesfield Church is about the life of Margaret Gatty and her daughter Juliana. It was used in 1874 and is commonly called the Parable Window in reference to the Parables from Nature series .

Dedication names

In honor of Gatty, William Henry Harvey named a genus of red algae as Gattya Harvey in 1855 . George Johnston named after her in 1865 the sea ​​worm species Gattiola spectabilis , whose valid name is now Amblyosyllis formosa Claparède, 1863. Gattiola spectabilis is sometimes referred to in biographical literature as Gattia spectabilis , which is probably based on a correspondence between Harvey and Johnston, in which Johnston originally called the species Gattia spectabilis.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Fairy Godmother, and other Tales , collection of fairy tales (1851)
  • Parables from Nature , 5 volumes, 1855–71
  • Aunt Judy's Tales (1858)
  • British Seaweeds (1862)
  • Aunt Judy's Letters (1862)
  • History of British Seaweeds (1863)
  • Aunt Judy's Magazine monthly magazine for the youth (since 1866)
  • together with Alfred Gatty: Life of Dr. Wolff, the Missionary (1860)

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Margaret Gatty at Essex-Family-History
  2. ↑ a b Renate Strohmeyer: Lexicon of natural scientists and women of natural knowledge in Europe , Verlag Harri Deutsch, p. 113
  3. ↑ a b Parables from Nature (PDF; 1.3 MB) by Margaret S. Gatty, Yesterday's Classics
  4. ^ A b Catharine MC Haines: International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950 , ABC Clio 2001, p. 111
  5. ↑ a b Gatty, Margaret (1809–1873) in: Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia ( Memento of the original of February 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com
  6. ^ William Henry Harvey: Some account of the marine botany of the colony of western Australia. In: Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 22: pp. 525-566, 1855. First description by Gattya Harvey, p. 555, at BHL .
  7. ↑ entry Gattiola spectabilis in WoRMS
  8. ^ JA Bryant, H. Plaisier, LM Irvine, A. McLean, M. Jones, ME Spencer Jones: The life and work of Margaret Gatty (1809–1873), with particular reference to her seaweed collections in Archives of Natural History, October 2016, vo. 43, no. 2, pp. 336-350
personal data
SURNAME Gatty, Margaret
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Judy, Aunt (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer and botanist
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Burnham , Essex
DATE OF DEATH October 4, 1873
Place of death Ecclesfield , Yorkshire