Anne Elizabeth Ball

{{short description|Irish botanist, algologist, and botanical illustrator}} {{redirect|Anne Ball|the Catholic writer|Ann Ball}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Anne Elizabeth Ball | image = Mary_Ball.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Left to Right Robert, Anne, Bent and Mary Ball | birth_date = 1808 | birth_place = Cobh, County Cork, Ireland<ref name=oxdnb>{{cite ODNB|last=Chesney|first=Helena C. G.|title=Ball, Robert (1802–1857), naturalist|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1222/56445|accessdate=19 October 2012|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/56445|year=2004}}</ref> | death_date = {{death year and age|1872|1808}} | death_place = Dublin, Ireland | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | residence = | citizenship = | fields = Algology, botany | workplaces = | alma_mater = | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = | spouse = }} '''Anne Elizabeth Ball''' (1808–1872) was an Irish botanist, amateur algologist, and botanical illustrator. Born in Cobh 1808, Ball was a sister of naturalist Robert Ball and zoologist Mary Ball (1812–1898). The siblings became interested in natural history through the passion of their father, Bob Stawell Ball.<ref name=bdws>{{cite book|title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century|year=2000|publisher=Taylor & Francis US|pages=73|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QmfyK0QtsRAC&q=Anne+Elizabeth+Ball|author=Ogilvie, Marilyn|author2=Harvey, Joy|authorlink1=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie|authorlink2=Joy Harvey|accessdate=19 October 2012|isbn=9780203801451}}</ref>

==Background== In 1818, Anne Ball moved from her birthplace of Cobh to Youghal, another seaport town in County Cork, with her family and it was here that Ball, in her early twenties, began to collect and study marine algae. In 1837, her sister and father moved away from Cork to Dublin, where she resided until her death. Anne continued her algae collecting in Dublin and, although not a member of the Dublin scientific societies, Anne established herself as a successful algologist.<ref name=oxdnb/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/outdoors/gardening/a-look-back-on-cobhs-horticultural-heroine-anne-elizabeth-ball-384404.html|title=A look back on Cobh's horticultural heroine, Anne Elizabeth Ball|last=Ó Nuallain|first=Fiann|date=27 February 2016|work=Irish Examiner|access-date=27 August 2019}}</ref> However, as was then the custom, her work was published by male naturalists such as William Henry Harvey (a friend of her brother's), James Mackay, and others.<ref name=oxdnb/> However these relationships were not entirely one-sided. William Harvey supported and encouraged her work, naming the genus ''Ballia'' and the species ''Cladophora balliana'' for her.<ref name=oxdnb/> Ball collected the original specimen of ''Cladophora balliana'' on 16 May 1843 at Clontarf.<ref name=oxdnb/><ref>{{cite book|last=Stevens|first=Catherine M. C. Haines with Helen M.|title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|year=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.]|isbn=978-1-57607-090-1|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HftdjMNDvwIC&q=Anne%20Elizabeth%20Ball&pg=PA17|page=[https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain/page/17 17]|chapter=Ball, Anne Elizabeth|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain/page/17}}</ref> They also collaborated on Harvey's ''Phycologia Britannica'' (1846–1851). Ball also contributed illustrated records of hydroids to William Thompson and these were published in volume four of ''The Natural History of Ireland'' in 1856.<ref name=oxdnb/>

==Legacy== Ball died at home in Belmont Avenue, Dublin, in 1872. Her extant collections were later housed in the herbaria at University College Cork; at the Royal (later Irish National) Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, which acquired her drawings of seaweeds and fungi; at the Ulster Museum; and her letters and plants at Kew Gardens<ref name=oxdnb/><ref name=bdws/> The specimens deposited at Kew Gardens were, most likely, transferred to the Natural History Museum, London around 1961 under the terms of the Morton Agreement.<ref name=jstor>{{cite web|title=Ball, Anne Elizabeth (1808–1872)|url=http://plants.jstor.org/person/bm000393116|work=JStor Plant Science|accessdate=19 October 2012}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://herbariaunited.org/specimensearch/?collector=Anne+Elizabeth+Ball&colid=9279&search=search Botanical specimens collected by Anne Elizabeth Ball], Botanical Society of the British Isles

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Anne Elizabeth}} Category:1808 births Category:1872 deaths Category:Irish botanical illustrators Category:19th-century Irish botanists Category:People from Cobh Category:Phycologists Category:Women phycologists Category:19th-century Irish women scientists Category:19th-century Irish painters Category:People from Youghal Category:Scientists from County Cork Category:Artists from County Cork Category:19th-century women biologists