Bella MacCallum
Bella MacCallum | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1886 |
| Died | 17 March 1927 (aged 40–41) |
| Alma mater | |
| Spouse |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany and Mycology |
Bella Dytes MacIntosh MacCallum (née Cross, 1886 – 17 March 1927) was a New Zealand and British botanist and mycologist and was New Zealand's first female doctor of science.[1][2]
Early life and education[edit]
MacCallum was born in Timaru, New Zealand, the daughter of George and Rebecca Cross.[3] She attended Timaru Girls' High School, then Canterbury College, earning a bachelor's degree in 1908 and a master's degree in 1909 with First Class Honours in botany, focussing on halophyte plant adaptations to salty soil.[4] Her master's degree involved field observations and anatomical studies, and compared botanical formations in Christchurch to Timaru.[5] She was awarded a National Research Scholarship, which she used to continue research on wetland plants.[4] She taught at high-schools before she earned her doctorate from the University of New Zealand in 1917 with a thesis on Phormium (N.Z. flax), titled Phormium with Regard to Its Economic Importance; a work whose origins in 1909 were inspired by the work and advice of Dr Leonard Cockayne.[2][4][6] She represented her university in tennis, was a member of the hockey 1st XI, and the Executive of the Students' Association.[2]
Family[edit]
In 1915, MacCallum married Lance (Lancelot) Shadwell Jennings, and became known as Bella Jennings.[3] Both were tennis champions and researchers.[2] Captain Jennings was killed on 15 September 1916 at the Western Front, aged 23.[7] In 1919, she married Peter MacCallum at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. She had three daughters from her second marriage.[3]
Career and research[edit]
In 1919, MacCallum moved to England, where she studied bacteriology at Cambridge Medical School, then moved to the University of Edinburgh, where she researched fungi, specifically timber staining fungi,[4] publishing Some Wood-Staining Fungi in 1920.[6] She was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1921. Less is known about her life after this point; she moved to Australia when husband Peter MacCallum was elected Chair of Pathology at Melbourne University,[5] and died on 17 March 1927,[6] giving birth to their third daughter, Bella.[1]
In 2017, MacCallum featured as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words" project, celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Riley, Robyn (19 April 2009). "60 years of Sir Peter MacCallum's dream". Sunday Herald Sun. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- ^ a b c d Thomson, A.D. "Some Pioneer Women Graduates in Botany from Canterbury University College" (PDF). Centre for Studies on N.Z. Science History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
- ^ a b c "Social Notes". The Australasian. 26 March 1927. p. 54. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
- ^ a b c d e "Royal Society Te Apārangi - Bella MacCullum". royalsociety.org.nz. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
- ^ a b Creese, Mary R. S. (2010). Ladies in the laboratory III : South African, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian women in science : nineteenth and early twentieth centuries : a survey of their contributions. Creese, Thomas M. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810872899. OCLC 659564120.
- ^ a b c Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. Taylor & Francis. p. 818. ISBN 9780415920407.
- ^ "Lancelot Shadwell Jennings". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
- 1886 births
- 1927 deaths
- 20th-century New Zealand women scientists
- New Zealand mycologists
- 20th-century New Zealand botanists
- Women mycologists
- Fellows of the Linnean Society of London
- University of Canterbury alumni
- University of New Zealand alumni
- People from Timaru
- New Zealand emigrants to Australia
- New Zealand women botanists