Speaker 1: The storied legacy of Mercedes Benz is rooted and empowered
Speaker 1: women who've gone on to show the world what they
Speaker 1: can accomplish. This July, Womanica has teamed up with Mercedes
Speaker 1: Benz to feature women who've charted their own paths and
Speaker 1: achieved greatness. Join us on this journey as we celebrate
Speaker 1: women who were driven to pursue their passions, even if
Speaker 1: it meant changing course along the way. This month on Wamanica,
Speaker 1: we're talking about dynamos. Hello from Wonder Media Network. This
Speaker 1: is Wamanica. I'm Lindsay Cradowell, a producer and editor. On
Speaker 1: the show this month or highlighting women who've fled dynamic lives,
Speaker 1: ones that have shifted, evolved, and bloomed often later in life.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking about a woman who made significant contributions
Speaker 1: to the field of ecology. She pioneered methods of scientific
Speaker 1: observation and inspired scientists for generations to come. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about Maria Sibylla Marion. Maria was born in sixteen forty
Speaker 1: seven in Germany. Her father was an illustrator, and he
Speaker 1: died when she was three years old. Soon after, Maria's
Speaker 1: mother remarried someone named Jacob Merrill, who was a still
Speaker 1: life painter. Maria studied under Jacob and quickly became a
Speaker 1: dept at watercolor painting. The subjects of her paintings were
Speaker 1: mostly plants and insects, often insects that Maria raised herself.
Speaker 1: At thirteen, She reared silkworms and kept a detailed journal
Speaker 1: documenting their life stages. At the time, most scientists thought
Speaker 1: that insects spontaneously generated, appearing from the mud or rotten food,
Speaker 1: but Maria's journals disproved that they were some of the
Speaker 1: earliest observations of insect life cycles. When she was eighteen,
Speaker 1: Maria married Johann Andreas Groff, who was a painter and
Speaker 1: her stepfather's apprentice. Together Johann and Maria moved into their
Speaker 1: own studio, and then Maria began teaching art to the
Speaker 1: daughters of wealthy families. These families often had private gardens
Speaker 1: filled with exotic plants. Maria documented these plants meticulously and
Speaker 1: eventually published three books of flower drawings. Her books always
Speaker 1: included small insects drawn on every page. In sixteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: a year after the birth of her second daughter, Maria
Speaker 1: published The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars. The book contained fifty
Speaker 1: engravings that depicted every stage of a caterpillar transforming into
Speaker 1: a butterfly. While most other artists at the time were
Speaker 1: drawing pictures based on dead, dried animal specimens, Maria took
Speaker 1: inspiration from living creatures, and she always drew the animals
Speaker 1: with the plants that they lived among. By sixteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: Maria's marriage had become increasingly difficult. She moved to a
Speaker 1: religious colony in the Netherlands and brought her two daughters. Then,
Speaker 1: in sixteen ninety one, they moved again, this time to Amsterdam.
Speaker 1: In Amsterdam, women could own property and start businesses, which
Speaker 1: was a rarity at the time. Maria opened her own
Speaker 1: studio and she and her two daughters made a living
Speaker 1: as working artists. In sixteen ninety nine, when she was
Speaker 1: fifty two years old, Maria used the money she made
Speaker 1: selling her drawings to finance a trip to Surinam, a
Speaker 1: Dutch colony in South America. Maria, along with her youngest daughter,
Speaker 1: spent two years there. They observed wildlife and trekked through
Speaker 1: the tangled rainforest in petticoats, Maria learned about the ecology
Speaker 1: of the land from the indigenous and enslaved people in
Speaker 1: the colony. In seventeen oh five, Maria published a book
Speaker 1: based on her travels. It was called The Metamorphosis of
Speaker 1: the Insects of Suriname. The book contained detailed drawings of
Speaker 1: insects and plants of South American rainforests, something entirely unfamiliar
Speaker 1: to her Western audience. She also described in Latin all
Speaker 1: the stages of insect development. Maria's book left a lasting
Speaker 1: impact on the world of science. Other scientists followed her example,
Speaker 1: like Mark Catesby and William Bartram. They both began de
Speaker 1: picting insects in their natural habitats too, and Carl Linnaeus
Speaker 1: used her drawings to create his own classifications of insects.
Speaker 1: Maria died in seventeen seventeen, and what might have started
Speaker 1: as a small interest in insects laid the foundation for
Speaker 1: modern science. All month, we're highlighting Dynamos. For more information,
Speaker 1: find us on Facebook and Instagram at Momanica Podcast special
Speaker 1: thanks to Jenny and Liz Kaplan, co creators of the show,
Speaker 1: for letting me guest host. We'll be back tomorrow