• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE0047

Atkinson, Caroline Louisa Waring

  • Married name Calvert, Caroline
(1834 – 1872)
  • Born 25 February 1834, Berrima, New South Wales, Australia
  • Died 28 April 1872
  • Occupation Botanical artist, Illustrator, Naturalist, Writer

Summary

Caroline Atkinson was home-educated in New South Wales, a keen student of natural history and an accomplished botanical illustrator. She was also a populariser of science and published in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Horticultural Magazine.

Details

Taught by her mother, Atkinson developed a keen interest in botany and zoology. She wrote popular articles on botany, made drawings and sent numerous specimens to eminent botanists including William Woolls and Ferdinand von Mueller (q.v.). She was also an able taxidermist.

Atkinson was commemorated in the naming of the Loranthaceous genus Atkinsonia, also Erechtites atkinsoniae and Epacris calvertiana. A horticulturally distinct fern, ranking as a form of Doodia caudata, was named Doodia atkinsonii in her honour.

Atkinson married James Snowdon Calvert.

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Archival resources

  • Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection
    • Natural history illustrations, correspondence, and newscuttings, 1859-1961, mainly relating to Australian fauna and botany / Caroline Louisa Calvert (nee Atkinson)
  • Macleay Museum
    • Caroline Louisa Waring Atkinson - Records
  • National Library of Australia
    • [Biographical cuttings on Caroline Louisa Waring Calvert, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals]
    • Journal kept on board the "Cumberland" bound from England to New South Wales [manuscript]
  • State Library of New South Wales
    • Atkinson and Cosh family pictorial material, ca. 1842-1973
  • Royal Australian Historical Society
    • Four photographs including list of names of the sitters and a letter from Janet Cosh (1.11.1980)
  • National Library of Australia, Manuscript Collection
    • Papers of Patricia Clarke, 1887-2010 [manuscript]
    • Papers of Janet L. Cosh, 1826-1983

Published resources

Related entries


  • Related Concepts
    • Women and Botany
  • Granddaughter
    • Cosh, Janet Louise (1901 - 1989)
  • Mother
    • Barton, Charlotte (1796 - 1867)