Case W4
- Ellen Wright Blackwell
Robert Malcolm Laing and Ellen Wright Blackwell. Plants of New Zealand. Second & revised edition. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1907.
Ellen Wright Blackwell (1864-1952) was born in Northampton, England and developed an early interest in botany. In 1903, while en route to New Zealand to visit her brothers at Pahi, north of Auckland, Blackwell met the botanist Robert Laing and a friendship developed.
In 1906, Laing and Blackwell produced Plants of New Zealand under joint authorship, with 160 original photographs by Ellen and her brother Frank Blackwell. A comprehensive, well-illustrated book it became a botanical classic running to seven editions over the next 60 years.
Unfortunately, Ellen Blackwell received little credit for her part in the work. Contemporary reviewers largely ignored her contribution whilst male botanists at the time seemed to have held strong views on the place of women.
Blackwell returned to England soon after the book was published and never returned to New Zealand. She wrote two religious books for children in the 1920s and died at Portsmouth in 1952.
Robert Malcolm Laing and Ellen Wright Blackwell. Plants of New Zealand. Second & revised edition. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1907.
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Robert Malcolm Laing and Ellen Wright Blackwell. Plants of New Zealand. Third edition, revised & enlarged. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1927.
Ellen Wright Blackwell (1864-1952) was born in Northampton, England and developed an early interest in botany. In 1903, while en route to New Zealand to visit her brothers at Pahi, north of Auckland, Blackwell met the botanist Robert Laing and a friendship developed.
In 1906, Laing and Blackwell produced Plants of New Zealand under joint authorship, with 160 original photographs by Ellen and her brother Frank Blackwell. A comprehensive, well-illustrated book it became a botanical classic running to seven editions over the next 60 years.
Unfortunately, Ellen Blackwell received little credit for her part in the work. Contemporary reviewers largely ignored her contribution whilst male botanists at the time seemed to have held strong views on the place of women.
Blackwell returned to England soon after the book was published and never returned to New Zealand. She wrote two religious books for children in the 1920s and died at Portsmouth in 1952.
Robert Malcolm Laing and Ellen Wright Blackwell. Plants of New Zealand. Third edition, revised & enlarged. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1927.
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