Isabella Gifford (1825-1891)
Isabella Gifford was a botanist who specialised in seaweeds from the British coast. She was born near Brecon, Wales, in 1825, and lived in France, Jersey and Falmouth. In 1848 she moved with her parents to Minehead.
From a young age Isabella was a keen collector and took inspiration from the landscape around her. Though she had a range of family links to science, she probably taught herself to be a botanist, and became expert in the study of algae, plants, and mosses. She published ‘The Marine Botanist: An Introduction to the Study of Algology’ in 1848.
Isabella’s knowledge of the subject was vast. She spent her life writing to other botanists from all over the world and also helped beginners in botany.
She spent her final years in her home and garden at The Parks, Minehead, and died in 1891 after a short illness.
Her botanical specimens are found in museum collections across Great Britain. 953 seaweed specimens are cared for by the South West Heritage Trust, a small selection of which are going on temporary display in Discovering Gallery at the Museum of Somerset. They belong to Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society.
South West Area Natural Sciences: Setting Natural Science Collections Data Free Pilot Digitisation Project
The South West Heritage Trust is contributing to a pilot digitisation project in collaboration with the Natural History Museum (NHM), South West Museum Development (SWMD) and Bristol Culture & Creative Industries (BC&CI). The ‘South West Area Natural Sciences: Setting Natural Science Collections Data Free’ project’s aim is to enable museums to share their natural science specimens and associated data digitally and to help researchers understand more about biodiversity, as well as the influence of humanity on our natural world and on our rapidly changing planet.
As part of the pilot project three museums of different scales (South West Heritage Trust, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and Newton Abbot Museum) each trialled a digitisation process designed by the Natural History Museum. Findings from the pilot project will ensure that the needs of regional museums are accounted for during the development of an ambitious mass digitisation project. This work forms part of a bigger scoping-project led by the NHM, ‘Setting natural science data free: scoping a UK collections approach’, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
For the Trust’s pilot we digitised a collection of 119 pressed seaweed specimens collected from Somerset sites by Isabella Gifford between 1840 and 1890. These specimens are scientifically important but also beautiful works of art, carefully arranged by their collector into striking compositions.
(South West Museum Development)
(South West Museum Development)
Emma Daffin (Visitor Services Assistant at The Museum of Somerset) was seconded to the museum curatorial team for two weeks to work on this project. Laurence Livermore (Innovation Manager, NHM), Peter Wing (Digitisation Specialist, NHM), Helena Jaeschke (Conservation Development Officer, SWMD) and Isla Gladstone (Senior Curator Natural Sciences, BC&CI) visited the Somerset Heritage Centre on Tuesday 4 July 2023 to train the Trust’s team. After completing the digitisation process, we worked with SWMD to evaluate the project.
“The project has enabled us to build links with digitisation and natural science specialists at regional and national museums. We hope to build on these partnerships in the future,” Curator of Archaeology Amal Khreisheh.