{{Short description|Australian artist (1830–1907)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Harriet Morgan | image = Portrait of Harriet Scott (cropped).jpg | alt = Harriet Scott – Ash Island 1853 | caption = Harriet Scott – Ash Island 1853 | birth_name = Harriet Scott | birth_date = 1830 | birth_place = Sydney, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|1907|08|16|df=y|1830}} | death_place = Granville, Sydney, Australia | other_names = | known_for = natural history illustration | spouse = Dr Cosby William Morgan | parents = {{plainlist| *Alexander Walker Scott *Harriet Calcott}} | relatives = Helena Scott (sister) }} '''Harriet Morgan''' (1830 – 16 August 1907) née '''Scott''' was one of 19th century Australia’s most prominent natural history illustrators and, along with her sister Helena Scott, was possibly one of the first professional female illustrators in Australia. The sisters were also highly skilled amateur naturalists and collectors, rare accomplishments for women of their time.<ref name="Ausmuseum">{{cite web|last=Dory|first=Fran|title=Harriet and Helena Scott: their life and works |url=https://australian.museum/learn/collections/museum-archives-library/scott-sisters/ |work=Australian Museum website|publisher=Australian Museum|accessdate=16 December 2020 }}</ref><ref> [https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/31758 Finney, Vanessa (2023), ''Putting Nature in its Place: The Australian Museum, 1826 to 1890'', Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney.]</ref> They were most notable for their magnificent drawings of moths and butterflies for the publication of the first volume of their father Alexander Walker Scott’s work ''Australian Lepidoptera and Their Transformations''.<ref name="HH">{{cite web|last=Docker|first=Rose|title=Harriet and Helena: The Scott Sisters|url=https://australian.museum/learn/collections/museum-archives-library/scott-sisters/harriet-and-helena-the-scott-sisters/|publisher=Australian Museum|accessdate=16 December 2020}}</ref>

== Early life == thumb|Ash Island (artist A.W. Scott) Harriet Scott was the daughter of Alexander Walker Scott, entomologist and entrepreneur and Harriet Scott (née Calcott). Harriet was born in Sydney and she and her sister Helena were educated by their father on Ash Island.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15193350 The last of the Artist-Naturalists, ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', (Wednesday, 14 December 1910), p.5.]</ref> Through their education they acquired extensive knowledge of the natural world, including Australian plants, animals and insects.

== Professional illustrator == [[File:Aglaosoma lauta & Cerura Australis 1864 Scott a705020.jpg|thumb|{{center|''Aglaosoma lauta'' & ''Cerura australis''}}]] Harriet earned admiration and praise from leading colonial scientists who she collected for and corresponded with. After the publication of ''Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations, drawn from the life by Harriet and Helena Scott'' she was elected an honorary member of the Entomological Society of NSW.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gray|first=Nancy|title=Harriet Scott (1830–1907) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scott-harriet-4925|publisher=Australian Dictionary of Biography}}</ref> However, she was constrained by her class and position in society. Her father suffered financial hardship in the 1860s but no matter how poverty stricken he became, he did not want either of his daughters to accept commissions, sign their own published drawings or be formally educated, however Alexander Scott did finally relent and permitted his daughters signing their published drawings. Harriet was forced to work when he became bankrupt<ref name="one hundred" /> and she drew and painted commercially for the rest of her life. While finishing some plates of birds' eggs for Edward Ramsay in 1866, Harriet asked "... above all ... let nobody know you are paying me for doing them for you". Harriet drew botanical illustrations for the 1879, 1884 and 1886 editions of the Railway Guide to New South Wales, and with her sister produced designs for Australia’s first Christmas cards in 1879.<ref name="one hundred">{{cite book|title=one hundred|year=2010|publisher=State Library of NSW|isbn=978-0-7313-7199-0|page=106|url=http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2010/onehundred/100-objects/Exhibit-047.htm|access-date=2013-04-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140624012050/http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2010/onehundred/100-objects/Exhibit-047.htm|archive-date=2014-06-24|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Scott married Dr Cosby William Morgan in 1882.

== Publications == Harriet was one of the illustrators for the publication of ''Australian Lepidoptera and Their Transformations'' written by her father Alexander Walker Scott. The success of the Lepidoptera presented many opportunities for her and her sister. Apart from gaining honorary membership of the Entomological Society of NSW Harriet received copious requests for commissions. The following decades saw her and Helena produce most of the art for science publications in Sydney including Gerard Krefft’s ''Snakes of Australia'' (1869), ''Australian Fossil Remains'' (1870) and ''Mammals of Australia'' (1871), Edward Ramsay’s ''On the Oology of Australia'' (proposed but never published) and JC Cox’s ''Monograph of Australian Land Shells'' (1868). Her work is still used by scientists today.<ref name="Ausmuseum" /> The artwork from ''Snakes of Australia'' and ''Mammals of Australia'' received a Very High Commendation at the Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition in 1870.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1797510 |title=Plate – Diamond snake, Morelia spilotes |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Museums Victoria Collections |publisher=Museums Victoria |access-date=2020-05-07 |archive-date=21 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221112507/https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1797510 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Death and legacy == Harriet died in Granville in 1907 leaving no descendants.<ref name="Ausmuseum" />

Harriet is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Australian venomous snake, ''Cacophis harriettae''.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. (Harriett, p. 117).</ref>

Harriet, with her sister Helena, were largely forgotten until the 2011 exhibition ''Beauty from Nature: Art of the Scott Sisters'' at the Australian Museum in Sydney.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://australianmuseum.net.au/Beauty-from-Nature-art-of-the-Scott-Sisters|title=The Scott sisters – Australian Museum|website=australianmuseum.net.au|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111013110847/http://australianmuseum.net.au/event/Beauty-from-Nature-the-art-of-the-Scott-sisters |archive-date=2011-10-13 }}</ref>

== Gallery == <gallery> File:Harriet Scott - Black-headed Snake, Aspidiotes melanocephalus - Google Art Project.jpg File:Helicarion mastersi shell 2.png File:Thylacinus cynocephalus lithograph Harriet Morgan Scott.jpg File:Plate from Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations, drawn from the life.jpg|A plate from Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations, drawn from the life File:N35 w1150 - Flickr - BioDivLibrary.jpg|alt=A black and white illustration of a koala in a tree with a baby on its back.|The Koala, or Native Bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''). [Plate VI] published in The mammals of Australia (1871): illustrated by Miss Harriett Scott, and Mrs. Helena Forde<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Krefft |first=Johan Ludwig Gerhard |author-link=Gerard Krefft |date=1871 |title=The Koala, or Native Bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''). [Plate VI] |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/314735 |journal=The Mammals of Australia: Illustrated by Miss Harriett Scott, and MRS. Helena Forde, for the Council of Education; with a Short Account of All the Species Hitherto Described |pages=1––2 |doi=10.5962/p.314735}}</ref> </gallery>

== References == {{reflist}}

== Further reading == {{Cite book |author=Finney, Vanessa |title=Transformations: Harriet and Helena Scott, Colonial Sydney's Finest Natural History Painters |date=2018 |location=Sydney |publisher=NewSouth Publishing |isbn=978-1-74223-580-6}} 220 pp.

== External links == {{Sister project auto}} * [http://australianmuseum.net.au/Scott-Sisters-Butterfly-and-Moth-Drawings Australian Museum Gallery] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515032453/http://australianmuseum.net.au/Scott-Sisters-Butterfly-and-Moth-Drawings |date=15 May 2013 }} * [http://australianmuseum.net.au/Other-scientific-illustrations Other scientific illustrations] * [http://australianmuseum.net.au/search/?keyword=Harriet+Scott&search=Search Australian Museum] * [http://www.daao.org.au/bio/harriet-scott/ Harriet Scott] DAAO * [http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Behind+the+Scenes/Scientific+illustrations/Insect+illustrators/The+Scott+Sisters The Scott Sisters] * [https://storiesofourtown.com/the-scott-sisters/ Stories of Our Town – The Scott Sisters] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJKZuUSixX0 A short video on the current use of ecological data collected by the Scott sisters]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Harriet}} Category:1830 births Category:1907 deaths Category:Colony of New South Wales people Category:19th-century Australian illustrators Category:20th-century Australian illustrators Category:Australian women illustrators Category:Australian natural history illustrators Category:Australian lepidopterists Category:Women naturalists Category:19th-century naturalists Category:20th-century Australian naturalists Category:Australian botanical illustrators Category:Botanical collectors active in Australia Category:19th-century Australian women Category:20th-century Australian women