Darwin Correspondence Project

Further information

Thereza Story-Maskelyne nee Llewelyn (1834-1926) was the daughter of John Dillwyn Llewelyn, the first photographer in Wales. Like her father, Thereza enjoyed photography; she helped her father with his scientific endeavours, including his photographic experiments. As a youth she also conducted botanic experiments, even receiving aid from George Bentham. Additionally, she maintained meteorological records from her father's weather station. She was married to English geologist and politician Nevil Story-Maskelyne in June 1858. Her husband was supportive of her scientific endeavours: he even wrote to John Lubbock to ask if Darwin would be willing to send Thereza copies of  two texts for use in her botanical studies. Darwin responded to this request and sent the Maskelynes a couple memoirs, as evidenced by a thank you note Nevil Maskelyne sent on behalf of his wife, who was an invalid at the time. Thereza wrote about both photography and astronomy. Darwin was aware of observations she made of her canary and siskin attacking flowers: he cited her observations in an 1874 Nature article.

PRIMARY SOURCES

Letters:

Darwin Correspondence Database, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-8091 accessed on 20 Feb 2013.

Darwin Correspondence Database, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-8100 accessed on 20 Feb 2013.

Books:

Darwin, C. R. 1874. Flowers of the primrose destroyed by birds. Nature, 4 May 1874, pp. 24-25. http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/published/1874_primrose2_F1771.html

SECONDARY SOURCES:

Early Swansea Photography. http://www.llgc.org.uk/fga/fga_s01.htm

Brück, Mary. 2009. Women in early British and Irish astronomy: stars and satellites. Dordrecht [Netherlands]: Springer.