{{short description|British naturalist, biologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Use British English|date=June 2013}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Mary Elizabeth Barber | image = Mary Elizabeth Barber00.jpeg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1818|01|05|df=yes}} | birth_place = South Newton, Wiltshire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1899|09|04|1818|01|05|df=yes}} | death_place = Pietermaritzburg, Colony of Natal<ref name="S2A3" /> | fields = {{Flatlist| * Botany * ornithology * entomology }} | workplaces = | alma_mater = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = <!--(filename only)--> | signature_alt = | spouse = Frederick William Barber }} '''Mary Elizabeth Barber''' (5 January 1818 – 4 September 1899) was a pioneering British-born amateur scientist of the nineteenth century. Without formal education, she made a name for herself in botany, ornithology and entomology. She was also an accomplished poet and painter, and illustrated her scientific contributions that were published by learned societies such as the Royal Entomological Society in London, the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, and the Linnean Society of London.

==Early life== Barber was born Mary Elizabeth Bowker in South Newton, Wiltshire, on 5 January 1818. She was the ninth of eleven<ref name="bowker"/> children and first daughter<ref name="ladies"/> of Miles and Anna Maria Bowker of Gateshead, Northumberland.<ref name="Cohen2000" /> Her father was a moderately wealthy sheep farmer, owning his own wool-processing business.<ref name="Cohen2000" /> In 1820 he moved his family to Cape Colony, South Africa along with other British settlers who wished to take advantage of the South African government's offer of 100 acres of land for every man over the age of 18. The Bowker family received land in Albany, near Grahamstown.<ref name=ladies/> Here Bowker set up a school for his children and those of this workers, and his affinity for natural history heavily influenced the lessons the children received.<ref name=ladies/><ref name="Cohen2000" />

Mary and her brothers all shared a love of natural history, but it was the 1838 publication of the book ''The genera of South African plants, arranged according to the Natural System'' by Irish botanist William Henry Harvey<ref name="Harvey1838" /> that changed her life. She was fascinated by the chapters on the structure of plants and the Linnean classification system, and responded to the author's request for specimens so that he could begin documenting the flora of the Cape.<ref name=ladies/> Her ongoing correspondence with Harvey took place during a time when it was not generally accepted for women to engage in scientific discussion;<ref name="Cohen2000" /> indeed, in the beginning she did not disclose the fact that she was a woman.<ref name=ladies/> She enjoyed unprecedented freedom in this respect, partly because she was released from the relatively constraining Victorian culture of her home country, but also because of her father's encouragement and the generally relaxed pre-Victorian (Georgian) ideals he carried from an era when women enjoyed a freer voice.<ref name="Cohen2000" /> She became one of Harvey's main suppliers of plants from South Africa and also assisted him in the naming and classification of numerous species.<ref name="beinart"/> Over a nearly 30-year correspondence, she sent Harvey approximately 1,000 species with notes on each one.<ref name=ladies/> She also established a correspondence with British botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker.<ref name=beinart/>

In 1842 she married Frederick William Barber, an analytical chemist who had established a farm in South Africa.<ref name=ladies/> They had two sons and a daughter.<ref name=bowker /> Barber was the grandmother of the sculptor, Ivan Mitford-Barberton

==Contributions to science==

===Botany=== Barber made substantial contributions to botanical science of the era through her collections and scientific observations of South African flora and fauna. This resulted in several plant species being named after her.<ref name="AutoR1-4"/> She and her younger brother, naturalist James Henry Bowker, sent many previously unknown species of plants to the herbarium at Trinity College Dublin, and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew.<ref name="Cohen2000" /><ref name="Cohen1999" />

''Aloidendron barberae'' (tree aloe) was first discovered by Barber, who was collecting plants in the former Transkei of South Africa. She sent specimens of the plant and its flowers to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, where in 1874 the specific epithet was given by William Turner Thiselton-Dyer (1843–1928) in her honor. In addition, she discovered ''Lotononis harveyi'' (Mrs. Barber's beauty), which was named after her.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/mrs-barbers-beauty/|title=Legacy of South Africa's First Female Botanist Reaffirmed after 147 Years|last=Platt|first=John R.|website=Scientific American Blog Network|language=en|access-date=2020-02-01}}</ref>

===Entomology=== thumb| ''Diadema misippus = Hypolimnas misippus'' by Barber Barber developed an interest in entomology while her husband was engaged in the ongoing guerilla warfare between the settlers and native Africans. With her brother, James Henry Bowker, she began documenting African moths and butterflies, and contacted entomologist Roland Trimen (1840&ndash;1916) in 1863 to share her discoveries.<ref name=ladies /> Her observations are reported to have contributed to Charles Darwin's deliberations on the role of moths in orchid pollination.<ref name="Cohen2000" /> Barber was introduced to Charles Darwin by Roland Trimen, a fellow British entomologist in South Africa in 1863. Barber exchanged letters and observations with Darwin and other gentlemen-naturalists in his scientific network.<ref name="Darwin15"/>{{rp|[https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-5745.xml Letter 5745]}} Her influence on Darwin's work was communicated indirectly, via Trimen. In 1865, Mary had declared she would write to Darwin herself about "the locusts and the locust birds", but there is no record of this, despite Darwin himself being a meticulous archiver of his correspondence.<ref name="Cohen2000" /> In other letters, Barber seemed to concur with Darwin's theory of natural selection, citing the dominance of European settlers in Cape Colony as proof.<ref name="AutoR1-6"/>

===Scientific societies=== Barber's contributions to science were eventually rewarded in 1878 with an invitation to become a member of the South African Philosophical Society &ndash; a singular honour at the time. The Linnean Society in London did not welcome women as members until 1905, emphasizing the progressive nature of this South African society, and the impact that Barber had had on her discipline. Her reply to this invitation sums up the attitudes of the time: <blockquote>"''I have no objection....and I don't see any reason why a Lady should in a quiet way be a member of any scientific society... I do not by any means approve of ladies coming publicly forward and usurping the places of men by preaching, making speeches, etc., but I don't see why they should not belong to any society that they are qualified for, and in a quiet way enjoy the privileges too." ''<ref name="Cohen2000" /></blockquote>

Barber joined the South African Philosophical Society on 26 June 1878. Her paper on the peculiar colours of animals in relation to their habits of life was published later that year.<ref name="Barber1877" /> This paper was written in response to an article by Alfred Russel Wallace in which he debated Darwin's theory on female choice in sexual selection.<ref name="AutoR1-7"/> Barber fully appreciated (and had the observations to prove) that females<!--of what kinds? birds?--> choose males based on their phenotypes: showy courtships, glossy plumage.<ref name="Barber1877" />

She went on to become the first female member of the Ornithologischer Verein in Vienna, the main ornithological society in Austria,<ref name="Cohen2000" /> and several papers of hers were translated into Hungarian.<ref name="Cohen2000" />

==Other activities== In the 1850s Barber assisted her older brother, Thomas Holden Bowker, in his work amassing the first collection of Stone Age implements in South Africa.<ref name=ladies />{{rp|10}}<ref name="AutoR1-9"/> In the 1870s Barber wrote a collection of articles about the discovery of diamonds and gold in South Africa. She also illustrated scenes from the diamond fields in several paintings.<ref name=ladies />{{rp|29}}

==Later life== Barber finally came into enough money to fund a visit to Europe in 1889, where she toured the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew for the first time, as well as visited scientific friends around Europe.<ref name="Cohen2000" /> She died in Pietermaritzburg, in 1899.<ref name="S2A3" /><ref name="sahistory.org.za" />

==Notes and references== {{Reflist|30em|refs= <ref name=bowker>{{cite web|url=http://www.bowker.info/BowkerChildrenIndex.htm|title=The Bowker Children|publisher=bowker.info|date=16 September 2007|access-date=10 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081231202452/http://www.bowker.info/BowkerChildrenIndex.htm|archive-date=31 December 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name=ladies>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjAvK_5V1FEC&pg=PA9|pages=9–12|title=Ladies in the Laboratory III: South African, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian Women in Science &ndash; Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries|first1=Mary R. S. |last1=Creese |first2=Thomas M. |last2=Creese |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0810872882}}</ref>

<ref name="Cohen1999">{{cite journal|last1=Cohen|first1=Alan|title=Mary Elizabeth Barber, the Bowkers and South African Prehistory|journal=The South African Archaeological Bulletin|volume=54|issue=170|year=1999|pages=120–127|issn=0038-1969|doi=10.2307/3889290|jstor=3889290}}</ref>

<ref name="Cohen2000">{{cite journal|last1=Cohen|first1=Alan|title=Mary Elizabeth Barber: South Africa's first lady natural historian|journal=Archives of Natural History|volume=27|issue=2|year=2000|pages=187–208|issn=0260-9541|doi=10.3366/anh.2000.27.2.187}}</ref>

<ref name=beinart>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBPFyx5WlwwC&pg=PA117|title=The Rise of Conservation in South Africa: Settlers, Livestock, and the Environment 1770–1950|page=117 |first=William |last=Beinart|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199541225}}</ref>

<ref name="AutoR1-4">{{cite book|title=Women Marching into the 21st Century: Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo|year=2000|publisher=Human Sciences Research Council|isbn=978-0-7969-1966-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgzGqNhLY1UC&pg=PA225|page=225}}</ref>

<ref name="AutoR1-6">{{cite journal |url=http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0038-23532009000600009&script=sci_arttext |title=Darwin's Legacy in South African Evolutionary Biology |first=S. D |last=Johnson |journal=South African Journal of Science|volume=105 |issue=11&ndash;12 |date=Nov–Dec 2009 |pages=403&ndash;409|issn=0038-2353}}</ref>

<ref name="Barber1877">{{cite journal|last1=Barber|first1=M. E.|title=IV. On the peculiar Colours of Animals in relation to Habits of Life|journal=Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society|volume=1|issue=2|year=1877|pages=27–45|issn=2156-0382|doi=10.1080/21560382.1877.9526124|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1431255}}</ref>

<ref name="AutoR1-7">{{cite journal|last=Wallace|first= A. R. |date=1877|title=Colours of animals and plants|journal=MacMillans Magazine|volume=36|issue=215|pages= 384–371|url=http://wallace-online.org/content/record?itemID=S272.1}}</ref>

<ref name="AutoR1-9">{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=V6Gx5pSpkioC&pg=PA2 |title= Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age |first1= Hilary John |last1=Deacon|first2=Janette|last2=Deacon |pages=2–3|publisher=New Africa Books |year=1999 |isbn=978-0864864178}}</ref>

<ref name="sahistory.org.za">{{cite web |url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/mary-elizabeth-barber-pioneer-naturalist-dies |title=Mary Elizabeth Barber, pioneer naturalist, dies|publisher=South African History Online|access-date=10 November 2012|date=2011-03-16}}</ref>

<ref name="Harvey1838">{{cite book|last=Harvey|first=William Henry |author-link=William Henry Harvey|title=The genera of South African plants: arranged according to the natural system|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cS9OAAAAcAAJ&pg=PR1|year=1838|publisher=A.S. Robertson|location=Cape Town}}</ref>

<ref name="Darwin15">{{cite book|last=Darwin|first=Charles |author-link=Charles Darwin|title=The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: 1821-1836|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Of0S0J-hijkC&pg=PA116|volume=15|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-85931-8|editor1-first=Frederick| editor1-last=Burkhardt|editor2-first= Sydney|editor2-last= Smith|series=Correspondence of Charles Darwin|page=116}}</ref>

<ref name="S2A3">{{s2a3 name}}</ref>

}}

==Further reading== {{refbegin}} *{{Cite journal | title = Thinking with birds: Mary Elizabeth Barber's advocacy for gender equality in ornithology | first=Tanja |last=Hammel | journal=Kronos|issn=2309-9585 | date = 2015|volume=41|issue=1|pages=85–111 | access-date = 2016-02-20 | url = http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-01902015000100004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en | location=Cape Town }} *{{cite journal|last1=Cohen|first1=Alan|title=Mary Elizabeth Barber, some early South African geologists and the discoveries of gold|journal=South African Journal of Economic History|volume=15|issue=1–2|year=2000|pages=1–19|issn=1011-3436|doi=10.1080/10113430009511122|s2cid=143614152}} *{{cite book|last1=Hilton-Barber|first1=David|title=The Saint, the Surgeon and the Unsung Botanist: A tribute to my remarkable ancestors. |year=2014|publisher=Footprints Press|isbn=978-0-620-61401-6 }} {{refend}}

==External links== *{{s2a3 name}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barber, Mary Elizabeth}} Category:1818 births Category:1899 deaths Category:19th-century British botanists Category:19th-century British women artists Category:19th-century British women scientists Category:British women botanists Category:English biologists Category:English entomologists Category:British women entomologists Category:British botanical illustrators Category:English ornithologists Category:English women artists Category:People from Natal Category:People from Wiltshire Category:British women illustrators Category:Women naturalists Category:19th-century English women writers Category:19th-century English women artists Category:Colony of Natal people Category:Cape Colony botanists Category:South African people of English descent Category:Cape Colony naturalists Category:British women ornithologists Category:19th-century women biologists Category:19th-century English naturalists Category:19th-century English illustrators