Person

Stones, Elsie Margaret (Margaret) (1920 - 2018)

AM MBE

Born
28 August 1920
Colac, Victoria, Australia
Died
26 December 2018
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Botanical artist
Alternative Names
  • Stones, Margaret (Also known as)

Summary

Margaret Stones was a Botanical Artist renowned for her taxonomical accuracy. She is known for her illustrations for the influential six volume book The Endemic Flora of Tasmania, with text by botanist Winifred Curtis. From 1958, Stones also contributed over 400 watercolours to Curtis's Botanical Magazine. The genus Stonesia (Podostemonaceae) was named in her honour.

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Details

Chronology

1936 - 1938
Education - Studied industrial art on three-year scholarship at Swinburne Technical College, Victoria
1940 - 1941
Education - Attended night classes at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School
1942 - 1945
Career position - Nursed at the Epworth Hospital in Richmond, Victoria
December 1946
Career event - First exhibition of botanical art at Georges Gallery in Melbourne
1948 - 1950
Career event - Joined the University of Melbourne Botany school summer expeditions to the Bogong High Plains, Victoria
1952 - 1981
Career position - Moved to England and worked independently for the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and other botanical institutions
1956 - 1981
Career position - Principal contributing artist to Curtis's Botanical Magazine
1957
Career event - Commissioned by Post Master General's Department in Canberra to prepare a set of floral designs for Australian stamps
1967 - 1978
Career position - Illustrated The Endemic Flora of Tasmania
1976
Award - Veitch Silver Medal, Royal Horticultural Society, London
1977
Award - Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
1977 - 1987
Career position - Ten year contract to draw Louisiana Flora
1979
Career event - Represented in the Flowers in Art from East and West' at the British Museum, London (one of only seven contemporary artists)
1980
Career position - Principal exhibition at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, USA
1985
Career position - Principal exhibition at the Louisiana State Museum, USA
1986
Award - Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc (Hon)), Louisiana State University, USA
1986
Award - Veitch Gold Medal, Royal Horticultural Society, London
1987
Award - Eloise Payne Luquer Medal,received for special artistic achievement in the field of Botany. Awarded by the Garden Club of America
1988
Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) - for service to art as an illustrator of botanical specimens
1989
Award - Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa, University of Melbourne
1991
Career position - Exhibited 90 drawings of Louisiana Flora at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Papers of Margaret Stones, 1952 - 1984, MS 7476; Stones, Margaret; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

  • McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Books

  • Curtis, Winifred; illustrations by Stones, Margaret, The endemic flora of Tasmania, 6 vols (London: Ariel Press, 1967-1978). Details
  • Zdanowicz, Irena, Beauty in Truth: the Botanical Art of Margaret Stones (Victoria: National Gallery of Victoria, 1996), 96 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Barker, Robyn, 'Margaret Stones (1920 - 2018)', Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 177 (2018), 47-8. Details

Resources

Resource Sections

See also

  • Ashton, D. H.; Ducker, S. C., 'John Stewart Turner 1908-1991', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (3) (1993), 278-290. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9930930278. Details
  • Herd, Margaret ed., Who's who in Australia 2002 (Melbourne: Crown Content, 2001), 2020 pp. Details
  • Hooker, Claire, Irresistible Forces: Australian Women in Science (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2004), 215 pp. Details

Ailie Smith and Helen Morgan

Created: 3 March 2003, Last modified: 24 August 2023

EOAS ID: biogs/P004310b.htm

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