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 and largest city of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The city, located on the main island of Saint Vincent, has the main port and the biggest commercial center of the islands. With a population of 12,909 (2012), K ...

, County Dublin,

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

,''1911 England Census''''Ireland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1620–1911'' the daughter of anthropologist and zoologist Alfred Haddon. She was educated at the Perse School for Girls 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 ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. 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, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

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 List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

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 1.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 British women zoologists 20th-century British women scientists People from Dún Laoghaire