Kathleen Haddon Rishbeth (13 May 1888 – 6 September 1961) was a British zoologist, photographer and collector of string figures.Henry Rishbeth (1999) 'Kathleen Haddon (1888–1961)', ''Bulletin of the International String Figure Association'', Vol. 6, pp.1–16. She was the wife of Australian geographer Oswald Rishbeth.

Early life and education

Kathleen Haddon was born in

Kingstown Kingstown is the capital, chief port, and main commercial centre of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. With a population of 12,909 (2012), Kingstown is the most populous settlement in the country. It is the island's agricultural industry centr ...

, County Dublin, Ireland,''1911 England Census''''Ireland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1620–1911'' the daughter of anthropologist and zoologist A. C. Haddon. She was educated at the

Perse School for Girls The Stephen Perse Foundation is a family of independent schools in Cambridge and Saffron Walden for students aged 1 to 18. The Foundation is made up of 3 nurseries (2 in Cambridge and 1 in Saffron Walden, Essex) for ages 1–5, 2 Junior Schoo ...

and

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

, where she began studying zoology in 1907. She and her sister Mary accompanied their parents to the United States in 1909, where the sisters helped collect string games from coastal communities in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

. As a woman, Haddon was ineligible to receive a degree from

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

in 1911,Beizer, Janet, "Thinking through the Mothers: Reimagining Women's Biographies", Cornell University Press, 2009. (although she did eventually receive a degree in 1948) but was appointed to work as a University Demonstrator in Zoology from 1911 to 1914.

Career

In 1914, she travelled with her father as photographer for a three-month survey of the southern coast of Papua, taking covert photographs with a portable folding Vest Pocket Kodak camera, as well as more elaborately prepared photographs with a stand camera. She did not publish her typed manuscript account of the voyage. She died in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

in 1961.

Family

In September 1917 Kathleen Haddon married Oswald Rishbeth, an Australian geographer and classicist who served in the British military in World War I.Mendillo, M.,
Henry Rishbeth: A remembrance
, 25th CEDAR Meeting, Boulder, CO., June 2010.Wood, R.K.S.,
John Rishbeth. 10 July 1918-1 June 1991
, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 41 (Nov., 1995), pp. 360–376 (17 pages) They had three children,Obituary
''Man'', Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 62 (Jan., 1962), pp. 10–12 (3 pages) including the biologist John Rishbeth, and physicist Henry Rishbeth.

Works

Books

* ''Cat's Cradles from Many Lands''. London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1901. . * ''Artists in String, String Figures: Their Regional Distribution and Social Significance''. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1930. . * ''String Games for Beginners''. 1934. .

Articles

* 'In Papua with a Piece of String', ''The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society'', July 1915, p. 140. * 'Some Australian String Figures', ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria'', N.S. Vol. 30, No. 2 (1918), pp. 121–36. Melbourne: Ford & Son. * 'In the Gulf of New Guinea', ''Country Life'' Vol. 24 (1929), pp. 268–70.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rishbeth, Kathleen 1888 births 1961 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge 20th-century British zoologists English non-fiction writers English women writers Photographers from Cambridgeshire String figures English women photographers Women zoologists 20th-century British women scientists People from Dún Laoghaire