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eventREF E-0011184Revised

Event record

Mary Elizabeth Barber, pioneer naturalist, dies

Mary Elizabeth Barber, pioneer naturalist, dies

Date
4 Sep 1899
Updated
30 Sep 2019
Mary Elizabeth Barber, pioneer naturalist, dies

On 4 September 1899, an 1820 Settler and early South African naturalist, Mary Elizabeth Barber died in Malvern, Natal Province (now known as Kwazulu Natal). Barber was a remarkable woman with an extensive knowledge of natural history, especially botany and entomology and supplied Charles Darwin with valuable information for his work On the Origin of Species (1859). She was elected to the Hungarian ornithological society and several of her papers were translated into Hungarian. As a natural historian, Baber was instrumental in influencing many of her family members and friends. She helped to establish the stratigraphic geology of South Africa for the first time, and initiated the examination of its ethnology, archaeology and palaeontology.

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How we know this

  1. 01Cohen, A., 1999, ‘Mary Elizabeth Barber, The Bowkers and South African Prehistory’ in South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 54, No. 170, pp. 120-127 [online]. Available at www.jstor.org [Accessed: 20 July 2011]
  2. 02Biodiversityexplorer.org, 2011. “Barber, Mary E. (born Bowker, 1818-1899)” from Biodiversity Explorers [online]. Available at www.biodiversityexplorer.org [Accessed 23 August 2011]
  3. 03Johnson, S.D., 2009. “Darwin’s legacy in South African evolutionary biology” in South African Journal of Science, Vol 105, No. 11-12, pp 403-409. Available at www.scielo.org.za [Accessed 23 August 2011]

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Mary Elizabeth Barber, pioneer naturalist, dies. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011184

South African History Online (2011) 'Mary Elizabeth Barber, pioneer naturalist, dies', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011184 (Accessed: 4 August 2026).

South African History Online, Mary Elizabeth Barber, pioneer naturalist, dies [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011184, (accessed 4 August 2026).

"Mary Elizabeth Barber, pioneer naturalist, dies." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011184. Accessed 4 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "Mary Elizabeth Barber, pioneer naturalist, dies." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011184.

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