Helena "Nellie" Scott (1832

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

– 1910) was an Australian illustrator of natural history. She was also a botanical collector who collected a number of type specimens. She and her sister Harriet Morgan (1830–1907) were the daughters of the Australian entomologist

Alexander Walker Scott Alexander Walker Scott (10 November 1800 – 1 November 1883) was an Australian entomologist mainly interested in butterflies. Scott was the son of Dr Helenus and Augusta Maria Scott. He was born in Bombay, India and was educated at Bath Gramma ...

Family life

In 1846, the family moved from Sydney to the remot
Ash Island
in the Hunter River estuary, near

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...

. Located in an untouched area of native vegetation and wildlife, they flourished under the guidance of their artistic father and Harriet Calcott, their mother. For a period of some 20 years, they remained on the island, documenting its plants and wildlife, with an emphasis on the butterflies and moths. Harriet and Helena kept unusually detailed records which are held by the Australian Museum Archives. They compiled a handwritten catalogue in 1862 entitled "The Indigenous Botany of Ash Island", a list of their well-preserved botanical specimens. Their striking depictions and descriptions of the island's moths and butterflies attest to the enormous dedication of the family to their self-imposed project. A glimpse into the daily lives of the two sisters is provided by the meticulous records they kept. Together with their father, they collected live specimens from their neighbourhood, then determined the proper food plants to take back home and feed the hungry creatures. They then conducted a lively correspondence with various specialists to pin down the identities of the problematic species. Their father gave them full credit for their achievements, praising the quality of the drawings that showed the insects in all their various stages. The 1860s had also brought dark days for Helena – her mother's death, her father's bankruptcy and the death of her husband, Edward Forde, whom she had married in 1864. Facing enormous financial problems, the family were forced to leave their island home. The sisters were now obliged to seek payment for their work. While finishing some plates of birds' eggs for Edward Ramsay in 1866, Harriet asked "... above all ... let nobody know you are paying me for doing them for you." She eventually married Dr Cosby William Morgan in 1882, but the widowed Helena continued to struggle financially. Both sisters continued to illustrate commercially for the rest of their lives. Harriet produced botanical illustrations for the 1879, 1884 and 1886 editions of the "Railway Guide to New South Wales", and both were involved in the production of Australia's first Christmas cards in 1879. Helena died in Harris Park in 1910 leaving no descendants.

Professional illustrators

By 1864, a large number of plates of moths and butterflies had been completed, ready for the publication of the first volume of their father's ''Australian Lepidoptera and Their Transformations''. A number of illustrating commissions sprang from this work, some from their father's contacts as trustee of the Australian Museum. They provided the illustrations for James Charles Cox'
''Monograph of Australian Land Shells''
(1868), and for

Gerard Krefft Johann Ludwig (Louis) Gerard Krefft (17 February 1830 – 19 February 1881), a talented artist and draughtsman, and the Curator of the Australian Museum for 13 years (1861-1874), was one of Australia's first and most influential zoologists an ...

's ''Snakes of Australia'' (1869) and ''Mammals of Australia'' (1871) – the artwork from these publications was singled out for praise at the Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition in 1870. When the prominent natural historian William Swainson examined the growing number of paintings a decade earlier, he wrote in the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', The brilliant colours and painstaking detail, a tribute to the sisters' patient observation and labour, are just as pleasing 150 years later. The museum purchased the 100 completed plates for £200 in 1884. The standard of their work led to their being elected honorary members of the Entomological Society – a signal honour for women in that period of history. The Australian Museum were persuaded to publish the remainder of the Lepidoptera material, which they had purchased in 1884, together with the sisters' drawings, diaries and notes. Under Helena's supervision, and working with museum entomologist

Arthur Sidney Olliff Arthur Sidney Olliff (21 October 1865 – 29 December 1895), was an Australian taxonomist who was active as Government entomologist in New South Wales. He came to Australia in December 1844 to work at the Australian Museum. Discoveries *''Rhinot ...

, th
second volume of the Lepidoptera
was published in five parts between 1890 and 1898. The two sisters did most of the lithography for this volume, which was then printed by the Australian Museum, and sent to England to be hand coloured, using the sisters' paintings as colour benchmark. Helena, with her sister Harriet, were largely forgotten until the 2011 exhibition ''Beauty from Nature: Art of the Scott Sisters'' at the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia,Design 5, 2016, p.1 and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the ...

in Sydney. Forde Place in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in her honour.

Plant collections

Both Helena and her sister collected for

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

, receiving in response, names for the plants they drew. Her collections include type specimens for '' Kochia sedifolia'', ''

Diospyros pentamera ''Diospyros pentamera'' is a common rainforest tree in the Ebony or Persimmon family (Ebenaceae) growing from near Batemans Bay (36° S) in New South Wales to the Atherton Tableland (17° S) in tropical Queensland, Australia. It is commonl ...

'' (as ''Cargillia pentamera''), ''

Atriplex stipitata ''Atriplex stipitata'', commonly known as mallee saltbush, bitter saltbush and kidney saltbush, is a species of shrub in the family Amaranthaceae, found in all mainland states of Australia. In South Australia, it flowers all year round, however ...

'', and '' Poa fordeana''.

Gallery

File:Helena Scott00.jpg File:Helena Scott02.jpg File:Helena Forde - Diamond Snake, Morelia spilotes - Google Art Project.jpg, Diamond Snake, ''Morelia spilotes'' illustration from ''The Snakes of Australia'' by

File:Mammals of Australia (Krefft) Nla.obj-33627803-13 The Black-striped Wallaby and the Common Wallaby.jpg, Krefft, Gerard (1871) ''The Mammals of Australia''. Illustrated by Miss Harriett Scott, and Mrs. Helena Forde File:Helena Scott06.jpg, Fruit-piercing Moth, (Eudocima fullonia), Noctuidae, Lepidoptera, 1869 Helena Scott (1832–1910)

References

External links