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.
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 - Veitch Gold Medal, Royal Horticultural Society, London
- 1986
- Award - Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc (Hon)), Louisiana State University, USA
- 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
Related entries
Colleague
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
- 'Stones, Margaret (1920-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-783699. Details
- 'Awarded honorary DSc, 1989', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details
Resource Sections
- 'Stones, Elsie Margaret (Margaret) (1920- ), Biographical Entry', in Australian Women's Archives Project, National Foundation for Australian Women, 2003, http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0295b.htm. Details
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