Biographical entry Atkinson, Caroline Louisa Waring (1834 - 1872)

Summary

Caroline Atkinson, later Calvert (her husband was James Snowden Calvert), was largely self-educated in New South Wales, a keen student of natural history and an accomplished botanical illustrator. She was also a populariser of science and published in the "Sydney Morning Herald" and the "Horticultural Magazine".

Details

Taught by her mother and developed a keen interest in botany and zoology. Wrote popular articles on botany, made drawings and sent numerous specimens to eminent botanists, including William Woolls and Ferdinand von Mueller (q.v.). She was also an able taxidermist. Commemorated in the Loranthaceous genus Atkinsonia, also Erechtites atkinsoniae and Epacris calvertiana. Additionally a horticulturally distinct fern ranking as a form of Doodia caudata was named in her honour Doodia atkinsonii.

Related entries

Archival resources

Macleay Museum, University of Sydney

• Caroline Louisa Waring Atkinson - Records, 1860 - 1865; Macleay Museum, University of Sydney. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Caroline Louisa Waring Atkinson - Records, 1859 - 1908, A4496-501; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Books

• Clarke, Patricia, Pioneer Writer: The Life of Louisa Atkinson, Novelist, Journalist, Naturalist, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1990, 260 pp. Details
• De Vries-Evans, Susanna, Pioneer Women, Pioneer Land: Yesterday's Tall Poppies, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1987, 280 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Chisholm, A. H., 'Atkinson, Caroline Louisa Waring (1834-1872), naturalist and writer', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 3, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 59-60. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030060b.htm. Details
• Gilbert, Lionel, 'Introduction', in Louisa Atkinson (ed.), Excursions From Berrima and a Trip to Manaro and Molonglo in the 1870s, Mulini Press, Canberra, 1980. Details
• Harris, Margaret, 'Caroline Louise Waring Atkinson, 1834-1872', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004. Details

Journal Articles

• Swann, Margaret, 'Mrs. Meredith and Miss Atkinson, Writers and Naturalists', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, vol. 15, 1929, pp. 1-14. Details
• Swann, Margaret, 'Mrs. Meredith and Miss Atkinson, Writers and Naturalists', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 15, 1929, pp. 14-29. Details

Online Resources

• National Library of Australia, 'Atkinson, Louisa', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-471408. Details

See also

• Perry, T.M., 'Atkinson, James (1795-1834), settler and author', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 1, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1966, p. 42. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010039b.htm. Details