Person

Somerville, Janet (1887 - 1969)

Born
24 May 1887
Lilydale, Tasmania, Australia
Died
27 October 1969
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Occupation
Plant collector, Science historian and Teacher

Summary

Janet Somerville began teaching after finishing school, firstly in small schools and later in the Wellington Square Practising School, Launceston, and the Princes Street School, Hobart. She started university studies while in Launceston, graduating BSc in 1940 while on the staff of the Hobart Teacher's College. On retiring in 1958 as Supervisor of Nature Study at the Tasmanian Department of Education, she became an Honorary Research Associate with the Department of Botany at the University of Tasmania, with responsibility for the herbarium then on loan from the Museum. Somerville was a keen botanist. In her excursions into the Tasmanian bush she was often accompanied by Winifred Curtis, the pair having met in 1939. Botanical specimens collected by Somerville are now in the Tasmanian Herbarium, and proved invaluable to Curtis and her co-author Dennis Morris in preparing The student's flora of Tasmania for publication. Somerville was a keen member of the Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club. She published a number of papers on Tasmanian natural history from 1944, including in the Club's magazine, but her major work on the botanical history of Tasmania from 1642 to 1820 was unfinished at the time of her death. It was published in 2006, edited by botanists at the Tasmanian Herbarium. The Janet Somerville Prize was instigated in 2013 by her sister-in-law, Anne Somerville, so that Janet might be remembered as a gifted field naturalist and to encourage excellence in studies in plant science.

Details

Chronology

1937
Career event - Appointed to staff of Teacher's College, Hobart
1940
Education - BSc, University of Tasmania
1958
Career event - Retired as Supervisor of Nature Study, Tasmanian Department of Education
1958 - 1969?
Career position - Honorary Research Associate, Department of Botany, University of Tasmania

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Book Sections

  • Curtis, W. and Somerville, J., 'The vegetation [of Tasmania]' in Handbook for Tasmania : prepared for the members of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science on the occasion of its Meeting held in Hobart, January 1949, Cerutty, Leonard, ed. (Hobart: Government Printer, 1949), p. [51]. Details
  • Somerville, Janet, 'Littlejohn, Robert (1756-1818)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 2: 1788 - 1850 I-Z, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967), p. 120. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020106b.htm. Details

Edited Books

  • Potts, Brett, Kantvilas, Gintaras and Jarman, Jean eds, Janet Somerville's Botanical History of Tasmania 1642-1820 (Hobart: University of Tasmania and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 2006), 233 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Curtis, W. and Somerville, J., 'Boomer Marsh: a preliminary botanical and historical survey', Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1947 (1948), 151-7. Details
  • Somerville, J., 'The Royal Society of Tasmania, 1843-1943', Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1943 (1944), 199-222. Details

See also

Helen Cohn

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