Elsie Bramell: A Pioneer in Museum Anthropology and Australian Archaeology

Elsie Bramell and Fred McCarthy in the Australian Museum Anthropology Department 1933. Photographer Anthony Musgrave. Australian Museum Archives AMS514_VA180_8. Reproduction Rights Australian Museum

When Elsie Bramell (1909-1985) began working at the Australian Museum in 1933 she was the first woman and the first university educated person to take up a scientific position in the Anthropology Department. She was appointed Scientific Assistant, senior to her colleague and future husband Fred McCarthy, who had worked Continue Reading

Margaret Mee: Explorer/Conservationist, Botanist/Scientific Illustrator

Bromelia anticantha Bertol. Cultivated in São Paulo. Procured from Minas Gerais. Margaret Mee, 1964. Permission for reproduction received from Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Rare Book Collection, Washington, D.C., Online Exhibits, Highlights from the Collections, Margaret Mee, The Paintings.

Margaret Mee, née Brown (1909-1988), was a British contemporary artist considered to be one of the most remarkable women of the twentieth century.1 She was referred to as the premier female explorer of the Brazilian rainforest and an outstanding botanical artist. Her voice was one of the first courageous ones to be raised against the exploitative destruction of Amazonia and she spoke for its conservation until her death.

Bertha “Bertie” Parker Cody: First Female Native American Archaeologist

Bertha Parker Pallan [Cody] (1907-1978) is considered one of the first female Native American archaeologists.

Bertha “Bertie” Parker Cody is widely considered to be the first female Native American archaeologist. Cody, who also went by her Seneca name Yewas, was born in Chautauqua County, New York in 1907. Her mother, Beulah Tahamont, was an actor of Abenaki descent. Her father, Arthur C. Parker, was an archaeologist of mixed Seneca descent, and the first president of the Society for American Archaeology.

Courtney Letts de Espil: Borden-Field Museum Alaska Arctic Expedition of 1927

“One must wear white in stalking Arctic game,” quips author Courtney Letts de Espil (Mrs. John Borden) in her 1928 book The Cruise of the Northern Light, which is a 317-page account of the Borden-Field Museum Alaska Arctic Expedition of 1927.1 Public Excitement As The Expedition Launches While newspaper accounts Continue Reading