Login
Login

Nancy Adams

{{Short description|New Zealand botanical illustrator (1926–2007)}}

{{Other people}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=March 2019}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Nancy Adams

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|CBE|QSO|size=100%}}

| birth_name = Jacqueline Nancy Mary Whittaker

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|05|19|df=y}}

| birth_place = Levin, New Zealand

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2007|03|27|1926|05|19|df=y}}

| death_place = Karori, Wellington, New Zealand

| resting_place = Karori Cemetery

| citizenship = New Zealand

| ethnicity =

| field = botany, phycology, illustration

| work_institutions = Te Papa, DSIR

| alma_mater = Wellington Girls College, Victoria University College

| doctoral_advisor =

| doctoral_students =

| known_for = botanical illustration, cultural heritage management, Seaweeds of New Zealand - An Illustrated Guide (1994)

| author_abbrev_bot = N.M.Adams

| author_abbrev_zoo =

| influences =

| influenced =

| prizes = Loder Cup (1964), New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal (1990), Companion of the Queen's Service Order (1989), Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1996), Royal Society Te Apārangi 150 women in 150 words

| spouse =

| footnotes =

}}

Jacqueline Nancy Mary Adams {{post-nominals|country=NZL|CBE|QSO|size=85%}} (19 May 1926 – 27 March 2007) was a New Zealand botanical illustrator, botanical collector, phycologist and museum curator. Throughout her career (1943–1987), she worked at DSIR and later at the Dominion Museum in different roles as technician, artist and assistant curator of botany. Largely self-taught, Adams collected over 3300 botanical specimens in New Zealand, illustrated nearly forty publications on algae and other native plants, and authored numerous scientific publications. Her major work, Seaweeds of New Zealand – An Illustrated Guide, was published in 1994.

Early life

Nancy Adams was born in Levin on 19 May 1926, the daughter of Jessie Whittaker and her husband, Kenneth Ernest Adams (grandson of early amateur botanist James Adams).{{cite web |last1=Hannah |first1=Kate |title=Adams, Nancy Mary |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/6a3/adams-nancy-mary |website=Te Ara |access-date=13 July 2021 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Wendy |date=8 January 2008 |title=Nancy Adams (1926–2007) |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124447009 |journal=Phycologia |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=1–4 |doi=10.2216/0031-8884(2008)47[1:NA]2.0.CO;2|url-access=subscription }}

Adams' parents separated while she was still young and she grew up in Wellington with her maternal grandparents, the proprietors of the Whittaker's chocolate company. From early in her life Adams displayed a strong interest in both plants and drawing: "Right from the time I was very small, I knew somebody did the plant drawings in books. That's what I wanted to do."File:CA0008980010002022 Small island in an inlet Te Papa 2257497 867236.jpgHer interest was fostered at primary school, where her principal William Martin was an amateur botanist who taught students to draw from nature and took them on trips at Wellington Botanical Gardens. Adams attended Wellington Girls' College and Victoria University College, studying zoology and botany. Adams had no additional formal training in art or illustration, and due to ill health, she did not complete her university studies.

File:CA0008980010002005 Watercolour of Botanical Garden Scene Te Papa 2257480 867261.jpg

Career

Adams joined the Botany Division of New Zealand's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in Wellington as a technician in 1943 when she was 16 years old. The DSIR was looking for staff to replace men serving in World War II, allowing her to work closely on seaweeds with botanist Lucy Moore.{{cite web |last1=Barnard |first1=Annie |last2=Adams |first2=Lucia |title=Nancy Adams and the art of seaweed; a conversation with Wendy Nelson, and a trip to Days Bay |url=https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2024/03/13/nancy-adams-and-the-art-of-seaweed-a-conversation-with-wendy-nelson-and-a-trip-to-days-bay/ |website=Te Papa blog |access-date=29 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526140341/https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2024/03/13/nancy-adams-and-the-art-of-seaweed-a-conversation-with-wendy-nelson-and-a-trip-to-days-bay/ |archive-date=26 May 2024 |date=13 March 2024 |url-status=live}} At the time, most agar in the world was produced from red algae in Japan, so finding new sources of agar based on New Zealand algae was a priority, which Moore successfully accomplished in her research on the red alga Leptocladia.{{Cite journal |last=Moore |first=Lucy Beatrice |date=1 January 1944 |title=New Zealand seaweed for agar-manufacture. |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q130961429 |journal=New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology |volume=25B |pages=183–209 }} Adams also assisted Moore with another study of the reproductive biology of the brown alga Halopteris.{{Cite journal |last=Moore |first=Lucy Beatrice |date=1 April 1946 |title=Oogamy in the Brown Alga Halopteris |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60252481 |journal=Nature |language=English |volume=157 |issue=3991 |pages=553 |doi=10.1038/157553A0|bibcode=1946Natur.157..553M }} Although she was not listed as a co-author on the resulting 1946 publication in Nature, Adams played a critical role in that research project by "examining hundreds of specimens and determining their reproductive characters." Adams handled and processed the many specimens of algae being sent to Moore at DSIR from across the country, including mounting, registering, labelling, identifying and illustrating the material. As technician, she learned by doing, increasing her knowledge of the New Zealand flora (especially algae) as well as her skills in collection management, specimen preparation, herbarium curation, and scientific illustration.

In 1948, Adams published her first botanical illustrations, which were of seaweeds for the New Zealand secondary school bulletin series, Post-Primary School Bulletin. She co-authored her first scientific paper in 1949 with Lucy Moore entitled, "Fruit Characters of Pittosporum dallii Cheesem.", which also contained her illustration of that endemic New Zealand tree.{{Cite journal |last1=Moore |first1=Lucy Beatrice |last2=Adams |first2=Nancy |date=1948 |title=Fruit Characters of Pittosporum dallii Cheesem. |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q89182984 |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand |language=English |volume=77 |pages=250–252}} Adams was the DSIR Botany Division's botanical illustrator from 1950 to 1959, working on a wide variety of projects and plant groups, including algae, mosses, and flowering plants. Additional publications in the Post-Primary School Bulletin lead to the book, Plants of the New Zealand Coast, co-authored with Lucy Moore in 1963, which contained dozens of her illustrations of seaweeds, sand dune plants, and other coastal plants.

Adams was appointed to the Dominion Museum (now the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) in 1959 as an artist, which was a highly varied role that included preparing exhibitions, and illustrating and registering collections ranging from natural history specimens to colonial furniture and costumes.{{Cite web |last1=Barnard |first1=Annie |last2=Adams |first2=Lucia |date=31 January 2024 |title=Following a Botany Legend: exploring the life of Nancy Adams |url=https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2024/01/31/following-a-botany-legend-exploring-the-life-of-nancy-adams |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520211853/https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2024/01/31/following-a-botany-legend-exploring-the-life-of-nancy-adams/ |archive-date=20 May 2024 |access-date=28 May 2024 |website=Te Papa Blog}} Most of the botanical illustration work she did during her first decade at the museum was done on her own time, including the first edition of the popular book co-authored with Lindsay Poole, Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand, eleven guidebooks to national parks of New Zealand, and guidebooks to the New Zealand flora. In the summer of 1967–68, she went on "an ambitious caravan expedition from Fiordland to north-west Nelson" with Alan Mark and his family to perform field work for their book, New Zealand Alpine Plants, published in 1973, which contained 450 of Adams' watercolour illustrations that she painted from fresh material during the trip.

File:CA0008920010076 Watercolour illustration of Gigartina seaweed specimens Plate 62 from Seaweeds of New Zealand Te Papa 793231 172950.jpgFile:Nesophila hoggardii W.A.Nelson and N.M.Adams (AM AK224554).jpg which was described by Wendy Nelson and Nancy Adams]]

Finally in 1969, Adams became Assistant Curator of Botany with a special responsibility for algae. The vast majority of her approximately 3300 plant collections, which are housed at Te Papa, were collected in the following decade.{{Cite web |title=Nancy Adams |url=https://bionomia.net/Q3297913 |access-date=6 November 2024 |website=bionomia.net |language=en}} Working alongside Curator Patrick Brownsey and technician Fiona Pitt, Adams was instrumental in both growing the botany collection at the museum as well as registering, organising, mounting and curating it. During her time at the museum, the algae collection went from about 1,000 specimens to 20,000, becoming a massive reference collection of indigenous marine algae, which provided fundamental knowledge for several regional checklists, floras and taxonomic revisions.{{Cite journal |last1=Nelson |first1=Wendy |last2=Dalen |first2=Jennifer L. |last3=Neill |first3=Kate F. |date=2013-11-26 |title=Insights from natural history collections: analysing the New Zealand macroalgal flora using herbarium data |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22583005 |journal=PhytoKeys |language=English |issue=30 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.3897/PHYTOKEYS.30.5889 |doi-access=free |pmc=3881353 |pmid=24399897}}

She retired from her position at the museum in 1987 but continued to be an Honorary Research Associate of the Museum.{{cite web|last=New Zealand Garden Journal|title=Obituary|url=http://www.rnzih.org.nz/RNZIH_Journal/Pages_25-26_from_2007_Vol10_No1.pdf|year=2007}}{{Cite book |last1=Lehnebach |first1=Carlos A. |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124332398 |title=Flora: Celebrating our Botanical World |last2=Regnault |first2=Claire |last3=Rice |first3=Rebecca |last4=Awa |first4=Isaac Te |last5=Yates |first5=Rachel A. |date=1 November 2023 |publisher=Te Papa Press |isbn=978-1-9911509-1-2 |pages=70 |language=English}} Her major work, Seaweeds of New Zealand – An Illustrated Guide, was published after her retirement in 1994, and was the first detailed flora of all macroalgae since 1855. The book was a 360-page monograph containing 116 of her colour plates, illustrating and describing about 75% of the estimated 800 species in New Zealand, from the Kermadec Islands in the north to the subantarctic islands in the south. Her book won the 1995 New Zealand Book Award for Book Production.{{Cite web |title=Past Winners {{!}} New Zealand Book Awards Trust |url=https://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/past-winners/?year=1995 |access-date=6 November 2024 |website=www.nzbookawards.nz}}

Adams was a prolific artist, illustrating nearly forty publications on native plants, alpine life, trees and shrubs. Included in these publications is an article written by Ella Orr Campbell, a fellow New Zealander, for whom Adams drew Thallus of Marchasta bearing archegoniophores.{{cite journal|last1=Campbell|first1=Ella O.|title=The Liverwort Genus Marchasta|journal=Tuatara|date=November 1961|volume=9|issue=2|page=77|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/Bio09Tuat02-fig-Bio09Tuat02_078a.html|access-date=15 March 2015}} She received international recognition for her detailed and delicate algal illustrations.

Through her curatorial work at the Dominion Museum, Adams became very interested in the history of New Zealand botany and its botanists. She comprehensively researched a number of early New Zealand biologist, and published articles on James Adams, Bernard Aston, and especially fellow botanical illustrator, John Buchanan.{{Cite journal |last=Adams |first=Nancy |date=2002 |title=John Buchanan F.L.S. botanist and artist (1819–1898) |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q106839739 |journal=Tuhinga: Records of the Museum of New Zealand te Papa Tongarewa |volume=13 |pages=71–115}}

Awards and honours

Awards included the Loder Cup in 1964, and the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.{{cite book|last=Haines|first=Catharine|title=International women in science: a biographical dictionary to 1950|year=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, California|isbn=1-57607-090-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain/page/2 2]|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain|url-access=registration|quote=madge adam oxford.}}{{Cite journal |last=Mark |first=Alan |date=1 September 2007 |title=Obituary: (Jacqueline) Nancy Mary Adams, CBE, QSO. 1926–2007 |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q130899702 |journal=New Zealand Journal of Botany |language=English |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=515–519 |doi=10.1080/00288250709509735|bibcode=2007NZJB...45..515M }} She was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services in the 1989 New Year Honours,{{London Gazette | issue=51580 | date=31 December 1988| page=34| supp=3}} and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to botany, in the 1996 New Year Honours.{{cite web | url=https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/publications/new-year-honours-list-1996 | title=New Year honours list 1996 |date=30 December 1995 | publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet | access-date=23 March 2019}} In 1994, she received an award for her work Seaweeds of New Zealand: An Illustrated Guide, which held a description of 600 different plant species and illustrating 441.{{cite web|last=Herald|first=The New Zealand|title=Obituary: Nancy Adams|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10431737|access-date=4 March 2014}} She is a Royal Society Te Apārangi 150 women in 150 words laureate.{{cite web |title=150 Women in 150 Words |url=https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/150th-anniversary/150-women-in-150-words/ |website=Royal Society Te Apārangi |access-date=11 November 2020}}

Eponymy

The following two genera and four species of algae have been named after Nancy Adams:

  • Adamsiella – a genus of red algae{{Cite journal |last=Phillips |first=Louise E. |date=2002 |title=Taxonomy of Adamsiella L.E.Phillips et W.A.Nelson gen. nov. and Epiglossum Kützing (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales) |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124499980 |journal=Journal of Phycology |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=209–229 |doi=10.1046/J.1529-8817.2002.00159.X|bibcode=2002JPcgy..38..209P |url-access=subscription }}
  • Nancythalia - a genus of red algae{{Cite journal |last1=Millar |first1=Alan J. K. |last2=Nelson |first2=Wendy A. |date=2002 |title=Nancythalia humilis gen. et sp. nov. and Abroteia suborbiculare (Delesseriaceae, Rhodophyta) from New Zealand |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124499944 |journal=Phycologia |language=English |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=245–253 |bibcode=2002Phyco..41..245M |doi=10.2216/I0031-8884-41-3-245.1|url-access=subscription }}
  • Lessonia adamsiae – a species of brown algae{{Cite journal |last=Hay |first=Cameron H. |date=1987 |title=Lessonia adamsiae sp. nov. (Phaeophyta: Laminariales) from the Snares Islands, New Zealand |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124500005 |journal=New Zealand Journal of Botany |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=295–308 |doi=10.1080/0028825X.1987.10410076 |bibcode=1987NZJB...25..295H}}
  • Lysithea adamsiae – a species of red algae{{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Wendy |date=1993 |title=Epiphytic Species of Porphyra (Bangiales, Rhodophyta) from New Zealand |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54666705 |journal=Botanica Marina |volume=36 |issue=6 |doi=10.1515/BOTM.1993.36.6.525|url-access=subscription }}
  • Phycodrys adamsiae – a species of red algae{{Cite journal |last=Lin |first=Showe-Mei |last2=Nelson |first2=Wendy |date=2010-05-01 |title=Systematic revision of the genus Phycodrys (Delesseriaceae, Rhodophyta) from New Zealand, with the descriptions of three new species, P. novae-zelandiae sp. nov., P. franiae sp. nov. and P. adamsiae sp. nov. |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54636184 |journal=European Journal of Phycology |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=200–214 |doi=10.1080/09670260903540847}}
  • Polysiphonia adamsiae – a species of red algae{{Cite journal |last=Womersley |first=H. B. S. |date=1979-01-01 |title=Southern Australian species of Polysiphonia Greville (Rhodophyta) |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q100714834 |journal=Australian Journal of Botany |language=English |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=459 |doi=10.1071/BT9790459|url-access=subscription }}

List of species named by Nancy Adams

Source:{{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Wendy |last2=Neill |first2=Kate |last3=D'Archino |first3=Roberta |last4=Rolfe |first4=Jeremy Richard |date=2019-08-01 |title=Conservation status of New Zealand macroalgae, 2019 |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q70958131 |journal=New Zealand Threat Classification Series |volume=30 |pages=1–33}}

Death

Nancy Adams died on 27 March 2007 in Karori, Wellington, New Zealand. She was 80 years old. Her botanical specimens and her archive, including original paintings, drawings, images and letters are at Te Papa.{{Cite web |title=Nancy Adams |url=https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/2583 |access-date=6 November 2024 |website=collections.tepapa.govt.nz}} She is buried at Karori Cemetery.{{Cite web |date=2024-06-11 |title=At Nancy Adams' Desk: Juvenilia and wildflowers |url=https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2024/06/11/at-nancy-adams-desk-juvenilia-and-wildflowers/ |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=Te Papa's Blog |language=en-NZ}}

Gallery of botanical illustrations by Nancy Adams

File:CA0008880200001 Watercolour illustration of the buttercup (Ranunculaceae) and dogbanemilkweed (Apocynaceae) family flowers Plate 7 from Wild Flowers in New Zealand Te Papa 828575 85734.jpg|Plate 7 from Wild Flowers in New Zealand (1970)

File:CA0008920010108 Watercolour illustration of seaweed specimen Te Papa 850991 172982.jpg|Seaweed watercolour (1989)

File:CA0008920010033 Watercolour illustration of seaweed specimens Plate 105 from Seaweeds of New Zealand Te Papa 791345 172907.jpg|Plate 105 from Seaweeds of New Zealand (1994)

File:CA0008920090003 Watercolour illustration of the Nemastoma algae Plate 68 from Seaweeds of New Zealand Te Papa 830037 85846.jpg|Plate 68 from Seaweeds of New Zealand (1994)

File:CA0008880520001 Watercolour illustration of the geranium (Geraniaceae) and nasturtium (Tropaeolaceae) family flowers Plate 8 from Wild Flowers in New Zealand Te Papa 1540533 390175.jpg|Plate 8 from Wild Flowers in New Zealand (1970)

Bibliography

{{Library resources box|by=yes|lcheading= Adams, Nancy M. (Nancy Mary), 1926–2007}}

  • Trees and shrubs of New Zealand, by A. L. Poole and Nancy M. Adams, 1963
  • Mountain Flowers in New Zealand, 1980
  • Wild Flowers in New Zealand, 1980
  • Seaweeds of New Zealand: An illustrated guide, 1994

{{botanist|N.M.Adams|Adams}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

{{Wikicommons}}

  • [https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/6a3/adams-nancy-mary Biography of Nancy Adams] in Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand
  • [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/Theme.aspx?irn=2222 Biography of Nancy Adams] at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
  • [http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2016/07/20/nancy-adams-wendy-nelson-and-the-three-kings-seaweeds/ Te Papa blog on Adams' work] on Three Kings Islands
  • [https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/nancy-adams-botanist-and-artist Te Papa hub on Nancy Adams] at Te Papa
  • [https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018701612/nz-biography-nancy-adams Interview with Kate Hannah, author of Adams' biography on Te Ara] RNZ, 27 June 2019

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Nancy}}

Category:1926 births

Category:2007 deaths

Category:New Zealand botanical illustrators

Category:20th-century New Zealand botanists

Category:New Zealand Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Companions of the Queen's Service Order

Category:People from Levin, New Zealand

Category:20th-century New Zealand painters

Category:20th-century New Zealand women scientists

Category:New Zealand women botanists