Person

Fountaine, Margaret Elizabeth (1862 - 1940)

Born
1862
England
Died
1940
Occupation
Entomological artist and Lepidopterist

Summary

Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine was one of the most prolific and famous butterfly collectors of her time. She not only collected the butterflies but breed them so she could study their lifecycle. Fountaine became an expert in tropical butterfly life cycles and was a talented artist who made many detailed and beautiful watercolours of her specimens.

In 1890 Fountaine left her sedate family life in the United Kingdom to travel the world in search of butterflies. She travelled extensively through Europe, America, India and South Africa before coming to Queensland, Australia in 1914 where she remained until 1917. Fountaine's collection of close to 22,000 butterflies, including 153 specimens from Queensland, were bequeathed to the Castle Museum in Norwich, UK.

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

  • Scott-Stokes, Natascha, Wild and Fearless: the life of Margaret Fountaine (Peter Owen Ltd, 2006). Details

Edited Books

  • McKay, Judith ed., Brilliant Careers: Women Collectors and Illustrators in Queensland (Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1997), 80 pp. Details

Resources

Annette Alafaci

EOAS ID: biogs/P004758b.htm

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Published by Swinburne University of Technology.
This Edition: 2024 November (Ballambar - Gariwerd calendar - early summer - season of butterflies)
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Cite this page: https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P004758b.htm

"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260