Maria Louisa Pike
{{short description|American naturalist}}
File:Spider Web and Cocoon Making.png making a cocoon.]]
Maria Louisa Pike ({{circa|1824}} – 1892{{cite web |title=Maria Louisa Pike |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W1N-9T8 |website=FamilySearch |access-date=16 May 2023}}) was an American naturalist.
Born in England, her father was Benjamin Hadley, British Commissioner to South Africa. She was private secretary to her father for several years, and employed much of her spare time in studying and making sketches of the flora of South Africa.{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_Biographical_Dictionary_of_America,_vol._08.djvu/354 |title=Pike, Maria Louisa |encyclopedia=The Biographical Dictionary of America |volume=8 |page=354 |editor-first=Rossiter |editor-last=Johnson |year=1906 |publisher=American Biographical Society}} {{PD-notice}} She went to Mauritius in 1870 and became acquainted with Nicolas Pike, U.S. consul, who was engaged in collecting natural history specimens for the Louis Agassiz Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She assisted him in the classification of over 800 species of fish, of which she made many colored sketches. They married in 1875 and moved to America, where she contributed articles and illustrations to Scientific American, American Agriculturist, and American Garden. She produced color illustrations of a large collection of spiders made by her husband, and also made a nearly complete set of pen-and-ink drawings of North American snakes. She was a member of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
She died in Brooklyn, New York, on March 23, 1892.{{cite journal |title=Mrs. Maria Louisa Pike |journal=Scientific American |page=240 |volume=66 |number=16 |date=16 April 1892 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican04161892-240a |url=https://www.alamy.com/week-ending-april-16-1892-page-carbon-oxide-mrs-maria-louisa-pike-the-pogonip-fog-the-best-mosquito-remedy-wstablist-3-1e445-scientific-american-1892-04-16-image334335648.html |jstor=26107173|url-access=subscription }}
Selected works
- {{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OYQ3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA130 |title=Spider Web and Cocoon Making |journal=Scientific American |page=130 |first=Mrs. Nicolas |last=Pike |date=31 August 1889 |volume=61 |number=9|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican08311889-130 |url-access=subscription }}
- {{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=veY5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA11746 |title=Plants Useful yet Dangerous to Man |journal=Scientific American Supplement |first=Mrs. N. |last=Pike |date=1 February 1890 |number=735 |page=11746}}
- {{cite journal |url=https://archive.org/stream/scientific-american-1890-06-07/scientific-american-v62-n23-1890-06-07_djvu.txt |title=A Chat on Orchids |first=Mrs. N. |last=Pike |journal=Scientific American |volume=62 |number=23|date=7 June 1890 |page=355}}
- {{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoQ9AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA37 |title=The Destruction of Animal Life and Its Consequences |journal=Scientific American |page=37 |first=Mrs. N. |last=Pike |date=17 January 1891 |volume=64 |number=3}}
- {{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JoU9AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA100 |title=Ferns: Their Preservative Properties and Varied Uses |journal=Scientific American |date=13 February 1892 |page=100 |first=Mrs. N. |last=Pike |volume=66 |number=7|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican02131892-100a |url-access=subscription }}
References
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Category:American women illustrators
Category:American natural history illustrators
Category:19th-century American illustrators
Category:19th-century American women artists
Category:American science writers
Category:American women science writers
Category:19th-century American writers
Category:19th-century American women scientists
Category:19th-century American biologists
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