Emma Cheeseman

{{Short description|New Zealand painter and taxidermist (1846–1928)}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Emma Cheeseman | image = Emma Cheeseman.jpg | caption = Cheeseman, date unknown | birth_date = 4 November 1846 | birth_place = England | death_date = 2 October 1928 | death_place = [[Remuera]] | occupation = Taxidermist, scientific illustrator }} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

'''Emma Cheeseman''' (4 November 1846{{spaced ndash}}2 October 1928) was a painter and taxidermist from England who emigrated to New Zealand as a child.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org.nz/150th-anniversary/150-women-in-150-words/1867-1917/emma-cheeseman/|title=Emma Cheeseman|website=Royal Society Te Apārangi|access-date=2019-05-19}}</ref> Her work is held in the collection of [[Auckland War Memorial Museum]].

== Biography == Cheeseman was born in England in 1846 and emigrated to New Zealand with her family, arriving in [[Auckland]] on 4 April 1854 on the ''Artemesia.'' Her father was Thomas Cheeseman, a Methodist minister who moved the family to New Zealand in the hope that the climate would cure a throat ailment he suffered from. She had four siblings: two brothers, William and [[Thomas Frederic Cheeseman|Thomas]], and two sisters, [[Ellen Cheeseman|Ellen]] and Clara.<ref name=":1" />

Cheeseman drew and painted specimens for the Auckland Museum, where her brother Thomas was the curator. She also learnt the art of taxidermy and prepared and mounted animal specimens for the museum, particularly birds, at home.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273695583|title=Bird collections made by the Cheeseman family: A record of the avifauna of Auckland, New Zealand, in the late 19th century|website=ResearchGate|language=en|access-date=2019-05-19}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-SamEarl-t1-body1-d14.html|title=XV — Thomas Cheeseman's Illustrations of the New Zealand Flora {{!}} NZETC|website=nzetc.victoria.ac.nz|access-date=2019-05-19}}</ref>

Cheeseman died at her home in the Auckland suburb of [[Remuera]] on 2 October 1928,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19281003.2.2.4 |title=Deaths |work=New Zealand Herald |date=3 October 1928 |page=1 |access-date=14 June 2019}}</ref> and was buried at [[Purewa Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.purewa.co.nz/view/?id=35839 |title=Burial & cremation details |publisher=Purewa Cemetery and Crematorium |access-date=14 June 2019}}</ref>

In 2017, Cheeseman was selected as one of the [[Royal Society Te Apārangi|Royal Society of New Zealand's]] "[[150 women in 150 words]]", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.<ref name=":0" />

==References== {{reflist}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheeseman, Emma}} [[Category:1846 births]] [[Category:1928 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century New Zealand painters]] [[Category:Taxidermists]] [[Category:British emigrants to New Zealand]] [[Category:20th-century New Zealand botanists]] [[Category:Burials at Purewa Cemetery]] [[Category:New Zealand women botanists]] [[Category:People associated with the Auckland War Memorial Museum]] [[Category:19th-century New Zealand botanists]] [[Category:20th-century New Zealand women scientists]]