Margaret Jane Benson

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Margaret Jane Benson
Benson c. 1911
Born(1859-10-20)20 October 1859
London, England
Died20 June 1936(1936-06-20) (aged 76)
Highgate, London
NationalityBritish
Alma mater
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
Institutions
Doctoral advisorFrancis Wall Oliver
Doctoral students
Other notable students

Margaret Jane Benson (20 October 1859 – 20 June 1936) was an English

Royal Holloway College, University of London from 1893 to 1922.[2] In 1927, a botanical laboratory was dedicated in her name.[2] She travelled extensively with Ethel Sargant, collecting specimens, laboratory equipment, and meeting other botanists around the world. Her students included Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, Theodora Lisle Prankerd, Nesta Ferguson, and Emily Mary Berridge.[3][4]

Early life and education

Benson was born 20 October 1859 in London to William Benson and Edmunda Bourne, who was the daughter of the landscape painter

Royal Academy of Art.[6]

Benson was introduced to botany by her father, an engineer and architect with an interest in the subject.

Amentiferae
at the time.

Work and achievements

Benson started working as a lecturer at Royal Holloway College in 1889.[7] Benson was appointed head of the Botany Department at Royal Holloway College in 1893,[5] and remained so until her retirement in 1922. She was the first female Botanist to become a department head in the UK.[2] In 1897, Benson travelled around Europe with Ethel Sargent to gain equipment and knowledge to set up the department.[9] Benson is also credited with planning and stocking the Botanical Garden, Herbarium and Museum.[5]

Benson made various collecting trips for botanical material, including to Australia in 1905–1906, and to Australia, Java and India in 1914-15.

microscopic anatomy of fossils, she cut sections herself with a gas-powered machine in her garden shed.[8] Her papers are characterised by precise drawings and wash-paintings which are believed to be produced by Benson herself.[2]

In 1904, she became a fellow of the Linnean Society of London,[1] one of the first fifteen women who were admitted.[5][12] In 1912 she was made a Professor by the University of London.[5]

Death and legacy

Upon her retirement in 1922,[5] Benson was succeeded by Professor Elizabeth Marianne Blackwell as Head of Botany at Royal Holloway College. Benson died in Highgate on 20 June 1936, and Blackwell authored Benson's official obituary.[4]

Publications

  • M Benson (1893) Contributions to the Embryology of the Amentiferæ.—Part I. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 2nd Series. Botany 3(10):409-–424[13]
  • M Benson (1902) A new Lycopodiaceous seed-like organ. The New Phytologist 1(3): 58-59[14]
  • M Benson (1902) The fruitification of Lyginodendron oldhamium. Annals of Botany os-16(3): 575–576[15]
  • M Benson (1904) Telangium Scotti, a new Species of Telangium (Calymmatotheca) showing structure. Annuals of Botany 18(69): 161-177[10]
  • M Benson, E Sanday, E Berridge (1906) III. Contributions to the Embryology of the Amentiferæ.—Part II. Carpinus Betulus. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 2nd Series. Botany 7(3):37–44[16]
  • M Benson (1908) The Sporangiophore - A Unit of Structure in the Pteridophyta. The New Phytologist 7: 143-149[17]
  • M Benson (1908) X. Miadesmia membranacea, Bertand; a new Palœozoic Lycopod with a seed-like structure. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 199 (251-261): 409-425[18]
  • M Benson (1908) On the Contents of the Pollen Chamber of a Specimen of Lagenostoma ovoides. Biological Gazette 45(6): 409-412[19]
  • M Benson and EJ Welsford (1909) The Morphology of the Ovule and female flower of Juglans regia and of a few allied genera. Annuals of Botany 23(92):623-633[20]
  • M Benson (1910) Root Parasitism in Exocarpus (with comparative Notes on the Haustoria of Thesium). Annals of Botany, os-24 (4): 667–677[21]
  • M Benson (1911) New observations on Botryopteris antiqua, Kidston. Annuals of Botany 25(100):1045-1057[22]
  • M Benson (1912) Cordaites felicis, nov. sp., a Cordaitean leaf from the lower coal measures of England. Annuals of Botany os-26(1):201-207[11]
  • M Benson (1914) I.—Sphærostoma ovale (Conostoma ovale et intermedium, Williamson), a Lower Carboniferous Ovule from Pettycur, Fifeshire, Scotland. Earth and Environment Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 50(1): 1-17[23]
  • M Benson (1918) Mazocarpon or the Structural Sigillariostrobus. Annuals of Botany 32(128):569-589[24]
  • M Benson (1921) The grouping of vascular plants. The New Phytologist 20(2): 82-89[25]
  • M Benson (1922) Hetertheca Grievii the microsporange of Heterangium Grievii. Botanical Gazette 74(2): 121-142[26]
  • M Benson and E Blackwell (1926) Observations on a lumbered area in Surrey from 1917 to 1925. Journal of Ecology 14(1):120-137[27]
  • M Benson (1933) The Roots and Habit of Heterangium Grievii. Annals of Botany os-47(2): 313–315[28]

See also

References

  • BENSON, Margaret J., Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)
  1. ^ a b Linnean Society of London [1].
  2. ^
    ISBN 9781862392274
    , pp. 51–54
  3. Marilyn Ogilvie, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century, Volume 1 (Google eBook)
    , p. 116, Taylor & Francis US, 2000.
  4. ^
    doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1937.tb00139.x
    .
  5. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/46416. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  6. ^ A collection of drawings by the Bourne family (c1773–1854). Bourne, James, 1773-1854, of 7 Somerset Street, Portman Square, London; Bourne, Edmunda, fl 1820–1844, of 7 North Crescent, Hertford.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ^ a b c d Creese, Mary R S (2000). Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800–1900: A survey of their contributions to research. 0810832879: Scarecrow Press. p. 39.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780198794981
    .
  9. ^ Joyce Harvey and Marilyn Ogilvie, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century, Volume 1 (Google eBook), p. 116, Taylor & Francis US, 2000.
  10. ^
    JSTOR 43235563
    .
  11. ^
    ISSN 0305-7364
    .
  12. S2CID 204475518
    .
  13. ISSN 1945-9351
    .
  14. JSTOR 2427331
    .
  15. ISSN 0305-7364
    .
  16. ISSN 1945-9351
    .
  17. JSTOR 2427255
    .
  18. doi:10.1098/rstb.1908.0010
    .
  19. S2CID 85036280
    .
  20. JSTOR 43235811
    .
  21. ISSN 0305-7364
    .
  22. JSTOR 43236750
    .
  23. S2CID 83832002
    .
  24. JSTOR 43236279
    .
  25. JSTOR 2427971
    .
  26. JSTOR 2469795
    .
  27. JSTOR 2255785
    .
  28. ISSN 0305-7364
    .

External links

Media related to Margaret Jane Benson at Wikimedia Commons

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