Anna Blackburne
Anna Blackburne | |
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Orford Hall, Warrington, England | |
Baptised | 3 January 1726 |
Died | 30 December 1793 (aged 67) |
Parents |
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Signature | |
Anna Blackburne (baptised Anne Blackburne;
Blackburne corresponded with other naturalists including Linnaeus, to whom she sent a box of birds and insects. Her brother Ashton, who lived in New York, sent her specimens of North American birds. The Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant studied these bird specimens and included them in his book Arctic Zoology. After her father's death, Blackburne and her museum moved to nearby Fairfield Hall. When she died in 1793, her nephew John Blackburne inherited the collection. Several species are named after Blackburne, including the beetle Geotrupes blackburnii, the Blackburnian warbler and the flowering plant Blackburnia pinnata, now called Zanthoxylum pinnatum.
Family background and early life
Anna Blackburne was born in 1726 at
Association and correspondence with other naturalists
Blackburne was keenly interested in
Johann Reinhold Forster
One of the naturalists who visited the Blackburnes was Johann Reinhold Forster, who in 1767 had been appointed as tutor in modern languages and natural history at Warrington Academy.[30] Forster's scientific lectures at Warrington covered biology, entomology and mineralogy.[31] In 1768, Forster dined at Orford Hall every Saturday, helped Blackburne with the arrangement of her insect collection, and read his lectures on entomology to her.[31][32] Blackburne allowed Forster to use the family's library,[33] and encouraged him to publish his work.[34][31] For his friend Thomas Pennant, another naturalist, Forster unsuccessfully tried to obtain duplicates of shells in her collection.[35] Until he moved to London in 1770, Forster and Blackburne had a mutually beneficial relationship. While she received education, he benefitted from their social relationship and her library. Forster even expected Blackburne to order books for him.[33][36] Forster later took part in the second voyage of James Cook as the expedition's naturalist.[37][38] After his return, he and his son Georg published some of the botanical results of the voyage in the book Characteres generum plantarum.[39] The book was printed in both quarto and folio formats. Blackburne received one of the few folio copies, which were given by the Forsters as presents to royalty as well as friends and supporters.[40][d] Forster dedicated one genus of plants to Blackburne and her father, Blackburnia, including Blackburnia pinnata, now called Zanthoxylum pinnatum.[35] In the dedication, Forster mentioned John's garden and Anna's collections, thanking both for allowing him to use their "most informative museum".[4]
Carl Linnaeus
Blackburne wrote a letter to the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus on 29 June 1771, offering to send him "a few Birds & insects" collected by her brother Ashton near New York.[42][43] Linnaeus thanked her in his reply, written in Latin, and promised to name a new species after her if she gave him an unknown specimen.[44] In response, Blackburne sent "a small box containing a few Birds and insects".[25][45] These three letters are all that is known of their correspondence. The claims in her obituary that Blackburne was a "friend and constant correspondent of Linnaeus" or that he named a plant after her are exaggerated.[10][46] Linnaeus's student Johan Christian Fabricius visited Orford Hall, where he examined her collection of insects, and found a new species of beetle. He called it Scarabaeus blackburnii; it is now called Geotrupes blackburnii.[26]
Thomas Pennant
The naturalist Thomas Pennant, who had been aware of Blackburne and her collections through correspondence with Forster since at least 1768, visited Orford Hall in May 1772.[20] He later described the visit in his 1774 book, A Tour in Scotland, and Voyage to the Hebrides, where he praised John Blackburne's botanical collections and noted about Anna, "Mrs. Blackburne his daughter extends her researches still farther, and adds to her empire another kingdom; not content with the botanic, she causes North America to be explored for its animals, and has formed a museum from the other side of the Atlantic, as pleasing as it is instructive."[20][47] Pennant studied the collection of birds that Blackburne's brother Ashton had sent to her from America, which resulted in him including more than a hundred species of birds from New York alone in his book Arctic Zoology.[20][48] The book's preface contained extensive thanks to the Blackburnes for their contribution:[20]
To the rich museum of American Birds, preserved by Mrs. Anna Blackburn, of Orford, near Warrington, I am indebted for the opportunity of describing almost every one known in the provinces of Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. They were sent over to that lady by her brother the late Mr. Ashton Blackburn; who added to the skill and zeal of a sportsman, the most pertinent remarks on the specimens he collected for his worthy and philosophical sister.
— Thomas Pennant, Arctic Zoology, 1784[49]
Pennant named the Blackburnian warbler in honour of Anna Blackburne.[50] In 1975, V. P. Wystrach determined that sixteen or seventeen of the bird species accepted by the American Ornithologists' Union were originally described by Pennant from specimens sent to Blackburne by her brother Ashton.[51] Other than birds, Pennant acknowledged the Blackburne museum as the source for the descriptions of a mammal, a salamander, 3 species of fish, and 52 insects, also within Arctic Zoology.[31] Pennant did not acknowledge Blackburne's contributions in his autobiography.[31]
Other naturalists
The German naturalist
Museum, death, and legacy
Anna Blackburne assembled a museum with an extensive collection of natural history specimens, comparable to the
A crater on Venus has been named "Blackburne" in her honour since 1994.[66] The Blackburne crater is situated at 11.0°N, 183.9°E and has a diameter of 30.1 km.[67]
Notes
- ^ Several sources, for example Kendrick 1854,[8] incorrectly state that Blackburne was born in 1740, but her tombstone is inscribed "Died Dec. 30, 1793, aged 67".[9] Her obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine stated she was "advanced in age" when she died in 1793.[10]
- Old Style of the Julian calendar is used until 1752, but the start of the year is adjusted to 1 January, and later dates use the Gregorian calendar.[13] The parish register uses the old start of the year and lists the date of baptism as 3 January 1725.[14]
- ^ The whereabouts of this copy are unknown as of 2015. It is known to have been advertised for sale in 1944.[41]
References
Citations
- ^ Blake 2005, p. viii.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 152, 165.
- ^ a b c d e f g Shteir 2008.
- ^ a b c d e Edmondson & Rowley 1998, p. 16.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 150, 165.
- ^ a b c d e f Wystrach 1977, p. 150.
- ^ Edmondson 2004.
- ^ Kendrick 1854, p. 4.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, p. 164.
- ^ a b c Gentleman's Magazine 1794, p. 180.
- ^ Booker 1852, p. 115.
- ^ a b Wystrach 1977, p. 160.
- ^ Rodger 2004, p. xix.
- ^ a b Norman 1961, p. 65.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 148–150.
- ^ Edmondson & Rowley 1998, p. 14.
- ^ Blake 2005, p. 37.
- ^ Shteir 1996, p. 53.
- ^ Bennett 2014, p. 272.
- ^ a b c d e Wystrach 1977, p. 156.
- ^ a b Wystrach 1977, p. 148.
- ^ Allen 1994, p. xviii.
- ^ Rosove 2015, p. 617.
- ^ Shteir 1996, p. 54.
- ^ a b Wystrach 1977, p. 154.
- ^ a b c Wystrach 1977, p. 155.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 153–154.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 158–160.
- ^ a b c Easterby-Smith 2017, p. 87.
- ^ Hoare 1976, pp. 37, 51.
- ^ a b c d e Wystrach 1977, p. 157.
- ^ Gordon 1975, pp. 81–82.
- ^ a b Easterby-Smith 2017, p. 88.
- ^ Gordon 1975, p. 82.
- ^ a b c Wystrach 1977, p. 158.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 157–158.
- ^ Williams 2013, pp. 97–98.
- ^ Rosove 2015, p. 611.
- ^ Williams 2013, p. 118.
- ^ Rosove 2015, pp. 615, 620–621.
- ^ Rosove 2015, pp. 617–618.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 151–153.
- ^ Fries 1916, p. 285.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 153–155.
- ^ Fries 1916, pp. 286–287.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, p. 151.
- ^ Pennant 1774, p. 12.
- ^ McAtee 1963, p. 101.
- ^ Pennant 1784, Advertisement.
- ^ Wystrach 1974, p. 89.
- ^ Wystrach 1975, p. 609.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 159, 167.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, p. 159.
- ^ Urness 1967, p. 114.
- ^ a b c Easterby-Smith 2017, p. 89.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 161–162, 167.
- ^ a b YCBA.
- ^ Ford 2014.
- ^ Haines 2001, p. 35.
- ^ a b Wystrach 1977, p. 162.
- ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
- ^ Rylands 1881, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Cooke 2020, p. 441.
- ^ Wystrach 1977, pp. 162–164.
- ^ Edmondson & Rowley 1998, p. 23.
- ^ IAU 2006.
- ^ Bondarenko & Head 2009, p. 2.
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- OCLC 156797856.
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- "Collection of drawings depicting specimens from the natural history cabinet of Anna Blackburne". YCBA Collections Online. Yale Center for British Art. Retrieved 9 August 2023.