Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) first tried to establish herself as a mycologist--the study of fungi. In her 20s she was the first to observe the symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae. Her uncle presented her paper to the Linnean Society as women were barred from attending. She was also rejected as a student to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. The Linnean Society issued an official apology in 1997, acknowledging her contributions mycology.
These closed doors led to the opening of others, however. Sixty-seven years after her death Beatrix Potter’s 23 illustrated children’s books are still in print world-wide. The start of her success was the publication of an illustrated letter Potter sent to her ex-governess’ son, Noel Moore, as he recovered from an illness. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is about a rambunctious bunny who can’t resist poaching veggies from Mr. & Mrs. McGregor’s impressive cottage garden, barely escaping the fate of his father, who ended up in a pie there.
Potter created a bevy of Peter’s relatives and fellow woodland inhabitants in 22 other diminutive books published by Frederick Warne. Although her finely drawn hedgehogs, rabbits and fox strut about in human clothes their animal nature is always near the surface.
“Thank goodness my education was neglected. I was never sent to school. it would have rubbed off some of the originality,” Potter said of her childhood. Governesses and nannies were the norm in her upper class London home. Although haphazard, her education was finer than most moderns.
Growing up in the world’s richest city exposed her to great opportunity. She was keenly aware of other women artists; knowledgeable about publishing and art movements. By attempting to join one of world’s scientific epicenters illustrates how fast her society was changing. The quest to categorize the plant species of the world was the prequel to the Human Genome Project today.
As a child Potter developed an intense interest in the wildlife of Kensington. One can only presume her mother was as laissez faire with her domestic help as her daughter’s education for frogs, newts, ferrets, a pet bat and two rabbits lived at various times in their Kensington home. She was a keen observer, sketching her charges so enthusiastically that by her 10th birthday her favorite present was the book, Birds Drawn from Nature by Jemima Blackburn.
In her early 30s her life changed when several of her illustrated letters were accepted by Norman Warne, publisher. The instant success of The Tale of Peter Rabbit was Potter’s path to financial independence, She later planned to marry Norman, despite objections from her parents because they saw him as lower in status. He developed pernicious anemia and died before the wedding.
Also against her parents objections, she used her income to buy Hill Top Farm in the village of Sawrey, the Lake District in then Lancashire, now Cumbria. The farm’s old stone farm house appears in many of her stories. Potter established herself as a respected farmer, sheep breeder and conservationist. In her 40s she married William Heelis, a local solicitor. She bequeathed her beloved 4000 acre Hill Top Farm to the National Trust upon her death.
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