Discoveries by a Little-Known 17th-Century Woman Naturalist/Artist
Science writer Kim Todd’s book Chrysalis, Maria Sibylla Merian, and the Secrets of Metamorphosis tells the previously unknown story of a 17th-century naturalist and artist whose pioneering field studies of insects in South America helped lay the groundwork for modern-day ecology. Merian’s life story is interwoven with the tale of how notions about metamorphosis developed through time.
Merian, trained as an artist in Frankfurt, Germany, found herself drawn to the mysteries of insect metamorphosis at an early age. By 50, she had written two books detailing the life histories of hundreds of European species. Wanting to investigate the South American specimens in collector’s cabinets alive and in their natural habitats, she decided to travel to Surinam in 1699 with only her daughter.
Her careful observations of iridescent blue morpho butterflies and giant cockroaches offered views into the tropical insect world that no one else had seen. But her accomplishments were mostly dismissed and then forgotten in the 19th century when scientists feared they would be discredited if they built on the work of “amateurs,” particularly women.
Kim Todd is a widely published science writer whose work has appeared in Sierra Magazine, Orion, Legal Affairs, and Grist Magazine. Todd’s first book, Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotics in America (W.W. Norton & Co. 2001), a study of the biological and social effects of invasive species, won the PEN/Jerard Fund Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award.
A graduate of Yale University and the University of Montana, Todd has degrees in environmental studies and creative writing.
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