Margaret Sibella Brown

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Margaret Sibella Brown
Margaret Sybella Brown with flowers and books.jpg
Born2 March 1866
Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia
Died16 November 1961(1961-11-16) (aged 95)
Halifax, Nova Scotia
NationalityCanadian
Known forBryology
AwardsMaster of Arts (honoris causa)

Margaret Sibella Brown (2 March 1866 – 16 November 1961, herein referred to as Brown) was a Canadian bryologist specializing in mosses and liverworts native to Nova Scotia. Although lacking formal scientific training, she has been recognized for her significant contributions to the field of muscology and as an authority on the mosses and liverworts of Nova Scotia. Samples she collected are now housed at major herberia in North America and Europe.

Family and early life[]

Brown, age 7 years
Brown and her twin sister, Elizabeth, in the conservatory at Beech Hill, Sydney Mines. Child is unidentified.

Brown's grandfather, Richard Brown (1805 – 1882) was born in Lowther, England. In 1825, he moved to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to take an engineering position at the coal mines there, eventually becoming general manager. In 1834, he met Margaret's grandmother, Margaret Sibella Barrington (1836 – 1854, daughter of Captain Charles and Elizabeth Barrington) whom he married that same year. One of the couple's six children was Brown's father, Richard Henry (1837 – 1920), who took over as general manager of the mines when his father retired in 1864 and returned to England.[1]

In 1864, Richard Henry married Barbara Davison (1842–1898) in Pictou, after which they resided in the town of Sydney Mines where they raised a family[1] and he served as the town's first mayor.[2] Margaret had a twin sister, Elizabeth Purves (1866 – 1951), as well as three younger siblings: Annie Ethel (1869 – 1918), Richard Charles (1872 – 1951), and Lillian Seward (1878 – 1967).[1][3]

Brown had a paternal aunt, also named Margaret Sibella Brown (1836–1854).[1] Sibella Annie Barrington was related through Brown's grandfather, Richard Brown.[4]

Education[]

Brown's early education was at the Anglican School for Girls and Kings College in Halifax, from which she graduated with a B.A. degree.[5] She then attended the Anglo-German Institute finishing school in Stuttgart, Germany from 1883-1884, and also studied in London. After returning to Nova Scotia in 1885, she attended the Victoria School of Art and Design.[6]

Scientific career[]

Brown's career in bryology was mostly dedicated to collecting and classifying mosses and liverworts native to Nova Scotia.[7] The majority of her work was in Cape Breton, but she also collected specimens from Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Spain, France, and Jamaica.[5] The standard author abbreviation M.S.Br. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[8]

During Brown's lifetime, it was unusual to find women working in the sciences[6] and there is little contemporaneous record of Brown's scientific career. There is one known paper she published in 1937, in which she categorized a collection of moss samples gathered in Syria by William Bacon Evans.[9] She is known to have worked with Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, Nathaniel Lord Britton, and Joseph Edward Little, as co-collectors of specimens.[10] One expedition to Puerto Rico with Elizabeth and Nathaniel Britton was undertaken in January 1922, with a planned duration of ten weeks.[11] The results of that expedition were presented in April of that year.[12]

Society and board memberships[]

Brown was a member of the Moss Exchange Club (later known as the British Bryological Society)[13] and the Sullivant Moss Society (later known as the American Bryological and Lichenological Society).[6] She was president of the Halifax Floral Society. Before she died at the age of 95, she was the oldest living member of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science.[6]

Brown served on the board of the Victoria School of Art and Design (later known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design), and was a member of their education committee.[6] During World War I, she was honorary secretary of the Halifax Branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society.[6]

Honors[]

Brown was awarded an honorary M.A. from Acadia University on May 16, 1950, at the age of 84.[5][6][14] She had been offered an honorary Ph.D., which she declined and accepted the M.A. instead.[6] The graduation program noted that she was "probably the chief Maritime authority on mosses and liverworts".[5] In 1934, she was awarded an honorary diploma from the Victoria School of Art and Design.[6] Brown was inducted into the Nova Scotia Scientific Hall of Fame in 2010.[6]

In an invited paper at the 1976 annual meeting of the American Society of Bryology and Lichenology, Brown was listed as one of "the more important North American muscologists and collectors", noting that she was among those who "made the most lasting impact on muscology".[15]

Collections[]

Yale University Herbarium catalog card. Text reads: Lejeunea patens Lindb. / On rocks. New Brunswick / Long Island, Kennebecaisis / (Collected by) M. S. Brown July '23

The E.C. Smith Herbarium at Acadia University contains her collection of 1779 mosses, 858 hepatics, and 53 lichens.[6] Other of her specimens are in the collections of the British Museum, New York Botanical Garden, Dalhousie University, the New Brunswick Museum, the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, the Devonian Botanical Garden at the University of Alberta, the Yale University Herbarium, and the Harvard University Herbaria.[6][16][17]

Death[]

Brown died in her Halifax home on November 16, 1961. There is some question about the date of death; most sources give it as November 15th. Her official death certificate says the16th, which is used here.

Brown's middle name is variously spelled Sibella, Sybella, or Sebella, in different sources. Although her death certificate uses Sebella, Sibella is used in this article, as that is the spelling most commonly used in sources talking about her scientific career.[18]

Additional reading[]

  • Biography of Sibella's grandfather, Richard Brown. Vernon, Charles William (1903). Cape Breton, Canada, at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century. Toronto: Nation Publishing Co. pp. 16 – via Internet Archive.
  • Margaret Sibella Brown on Bionomia.

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d "Richard Brown family fonds". Nova Scotia Archives. Archived from the original on 2021-04-22. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  2. ^ "People / Richard Brown". Sydney Mines Heritage Museum. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  3. ^ "Brown family fonds – Beaton Institute Digital Archives". beatoninstitute.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-17. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  4. ^ Arlee Hoyt McGee. "Barrington, Sibella Annie". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d "The Honorary Degrees". Acadia Bulletin. XXXVI (4): 12, 14. June 1950. Archived from the original on 2018-10-13. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Inductees to the NS Scientific Hall of Fame: Margaret Sibella Brown, A Nova Scotian Bryologist. Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science. 45, part 2. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nova Scotian Institute of Science. 2010. pp. 152–154.
  7. ^ "Margaret Sibella Brown »". nsis.chebucto.org. 2013-04-04. Archived from the original on 2019-08-12. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  8. ^ IPNI.  M.S.Br.
  9. ^ Brown, Margaret S. (October 1937). "Mosses from Syria". The Bryologist. 40 (5): 84–85. doi:10.2307/3239666. JSTOR 3239666.
  10. ^ "Brown, Margaret Sibella (1866-1961) on JSTOR". plants.jstor.org. Archived from the original on 2018-10-13. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  11. ^ Garden, New York Botanical (January 1922). "Notes, News and Comment". Journal of the New York Botanical Garden. XXIII: 7. Archived from the original on 2021-11-04. Retrieved 2021-05-23 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ Garden, New York Botanical (April 1922). "Botanical Investigations in Puerto Rico". Journal of the New York Botanical Garden. XXIII: 49–59. Archived from the original on 2021-11-04. Retrieved 2021-05-23 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ Lawley, Mark. "Members of the Moss Exchange Club (1896–1923) and British Bryological Society (1923–1945)". Archived from the original on 2018-02-03. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  14. ^ "Margaret Sybella Brown Receiving Honorary Degree – Beaton Institute Digital Archives". beatoninstitute.com. Archived from the original on 2019-08-13. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  15. ^ Steere, William Campbell (July 1977). "North American Muscology and Muscologists: A Brief History". Botanical Review. 43: 289. Archived from the original on 2021-11-04. Retrieved 2021-11-02 – via JSTOR.
  16. ^ "Yale University Herbarium, Peabody Museum of Natural History". Frullania collaborative research network. Archived from the original on 2021-11-04. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  17. ^ "Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries: Index of Botanical Specimens". kiki.huh.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  18. ^ "Margaret Sebella Brown death at Halifax, Halifax County on November 16, 1961". Nova Scotia Archives. Province of Nova Scotia. O2-006233. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
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