Person

Adams, Nancy Bannatyne (1910 - 1955)

Born
13 September 1910
Nausori, Fiji
Died
28 January 1955
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Lepidopterist and Museum employee

Summary

Nancy Adams joined the Australian Museum as a General Assistant in the Department of Entomology in 1929. Despite being a committed and valuable member of the Department, she was not promoted to Museum Assistant until 1948. She was a skilled illustrator, many of her drawings being reproduced in the scientific papers of Herbert Carter and Keith McKeown. Her drawings also accompanied the papers she published in the Australian Museum magazine, the first in 1931. Adams became knowledgeable on Lepidoptera while assisting eminent entomologist Athol Waterhouse in the curation of the large collection of butterflies he donated to the Museum. She was also involved in the determination of which butterfly specimens had been stolen from the Museum in the 1940s.

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Details

Chronology

1924
Life event - Moved to Sydney with her family
June 1929 - September 1948
Career position - General Assistant, Department of Entomology, Australian Museum
September 1948 - January 1955
Career position - Museum Assistant, Department of Entomology, Australian Museum

Colleague

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Journal Articles

  • A. M. [ie Anthony Musgrave], 'Vale - Nancy B, Adams', Australian Museum magazine, 11 (10) (1955), 325. Details

Resource Sections

See also

  • Marsh, Walter, The butterfly thief: adventure, empire, and Australia's greatest museum heist (Brunswick, Vic.: Scribe Publications, 2025), 368 pp. Details

Helen Cohn

Created: 7 July 2026

EOAS ID: biogs/P008088b.htm

This Edition: 2026 May - New Office
Chunnup - Gariwerd calendar - Winter: late May to end of July - season of cockatoos
Reference: https://www.bom.gov.au/resources/indigenous-weather-knowledge/indigenous-seasonal-calendars/gariwerd-calendar#bom-anchor-list__item-chunnup-season-of-cockatoos

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