Dorothy Amaury Talbot (''née'' Amaury, 1871 – 1916) was an English plant collector and ethnographer in Nigeria. She and her husband and sister collected over 4000 Nigerian plant species, including newly discovered ones. She also studied and wrote on the

Ibibio people The Ibibio people ( ), also known as Ibom People or Ibom are a coastal people in southern Nigeria. They are mostly found in Akwa Ibom State, Akwa Ibom, Cross River State, Cross River, and the Eastern part of Abia State. During the Colonial Nigeri ...

. Born in 1871, Dorothy married Percy Talbot, a colonial civil servant. She and her sister, Miss Amaury, accompanied him on several long stints of being stationed in Nigeria as a surveyor. They periodically sent plant collections back to Britain until her death.

Plant collection

In 1910 – 11, Dorothy undertook a circular journey around Nigeria with her husband and fellow plant collector

Olive MacLeod Olive Susan Miranda Temple (; 18 February 1880 – 16 May 1936) was a Scottish writer and traveller, known for her work in natural history and ethnography. In 1910–1911, she journeyed 6,000 km (3,700 mi) through parts of Africa little known ...

, collecting and painting Nigerian plants. A further collection from the

Eket Eket is one of the 31 local government areas in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The name ''Eket'' or Ekid also refers to the indigenous people of the region who are the Ibibio people of the southern part of Ibibioland and to their dialect which is E ...

district followed in 1912 – 1913 when the Talbots and Miss Amaury were stationed there. Their collection, along with about 1000 drawings of the plants produced by Dorothy, was presented to the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

. To the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

they gave about 4000 botanical and zoological specimens as well as making gifts to

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

. The genus Talbotiella was named for the Talbots, with ''Dorothea talbotii'' Wernham being named for Dorothy individually.

Ethnography

Dorothy and her husband were also interested in the ethnography of the Ibibio people, who they saw as largely unaffected by contact with white people until their arrival. They collected representative artifacts from them, and Dorothy's book ''Woman's Mysteries of a Primitive People: The Ibibios of Southern Nigeria'' was published in 1915. Dorothy established the Percy Amaury Talbot prize for African anthropology, administered by the

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

. She died in Degama, Nigeria, on 28 December 1916 from malaria.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Talbot, Dorothy Amaury 1871 births 1916 deaths British expatriates in Nigeria 20th-century English botanists British women botanists 20th-century British anthropologists British women anthropologists 20th-century British women writers Deaths from malaria