Emily Margaret Wood Explained

Emily Margaret Wood (1865 – 1907) was an English botany teacher and painter of scientific illustrations and Arts and Crafts ceramics.

Life

Born 23 August 1865 in Calcutta, India, she moved to England in 1871.^{[1] [2]} In 1903 she was working as a botany teacher at the Liscard School of Science and Art.^[3]

Botany

Serving as secretary and botanical referee of the Liverpool Naturalists' Field Club for twenty years, her botanical contributions included collecting and publishing on plants of Denbighshire,^[4] illustrating Green’s Flora of the Liverpool District, revising George Atkinson’s First Studies of Plant Life for a British audience,^[5] and making over 800 plant drawings.^{[6] [7]} She also led botanical expeditions and gave free lectures at Liverpool's Free Public Library.^[8]

Ceramics

From the late 1890s she was commissioned as a ceramics painter by Sir William Forwood for the Della Robbia Pottery, part of the Arts and Crafts movement's reaction against mass-production.^[9] She painted Art Nouveau-influenced vases and tiles with botanical and classical scenes, including executing a design by Ford Madox Brown,^[10] and also worked as a book-keeper for the project.^[11]

External links

• Works by Emily Margaret Wood at the Victoria and Albert Museum
• Emily Margaret Wood at Harvard University Herbaria and Libraries

Notes and References

1. Hawley . Kathleen C. . 2001 . The lives and works of the women artists at the Della Robbia Pottery Birkenhead in late Victorian and Edwardian England . PhD Thesis . en . 199 . 10.24384/tx3k-fp63.
2. 1907 . Miss Emily Margaret Wood . Journal of Botany, British and Foreign . XLV.
3. Book: The gardening world illustrated : a weekly paper exclusively devoted to all branches of practical gardening . 1903 . Brian Wynne . v.20(1903) . London . 25.
4. Book: Wynne, Goronwy . Flora of Flintshire: The Flowering Plants and Ferns of a North Wales County . 1993 . Gee . 978-0-7074-0224-6 . 23 . en.
5. Book: Atkinson . George Francis . First studies of plant life . Atkinson . George Francis . Wood . Emily Margaret . 1908 . Ginn . London.
6. Book: Desmond, Ray . Dictionary Of British And Irish Botanists And Horticulturists Including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers . 1994-02-25 . CRC Press . 978-0-85066-843-8 . 753 . en.
7. Book: Ogilvie . Marilyn . The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century . Harvey . Joy . 2003-12-16 . Routledge . 978-1-135-96342-2 . 1394 . en.
8. Book: Liverpool (England). . Report of the (Free) Public Library, Museum (Liverpool) . Liverpool (England) . 1879 . 26-44 (1879-1896) . 22.
9. Book: Greenhalgh, Paul . Ceramic, Art and Civilisation . 2020-12-24 . Bloomsbury Publishing . 978-1-4742-3973-8 . en.
10. Web site: Gideon a fine della robbia two-tile panel designed by ford madox brown Woolley and Wallis . 2024-05-27 . www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk.
11. Book: England), Williamson Art Gallery and Museum (Birkenhead . Della Robbia Pottery, Birkenhead 1894-1906: An Interim Report . 1980 . Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Department of Leisure Services . 978-0-904582-02-4 . 21 . en.