Caroline Louisa Waring Atkinson

Born: 25 February 1834,
Died: 28 April 1872
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Caroline Calvert

This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Australasian Biography: Comprising notices of eminent colonists from the inauguration of responsible government down to the present time. [1855-1892] by Phillip Mennell, F.R.G.S., published by Hutchinson & Co., 25 Paternoster Square and 1892. The text was reproduced via Project Gutenberg.

Calvert, Caroline Louisa Waring, better known under her maiden name, was the youngest daughter of the late James Atkinson, and was born at Oldbury, near Berrima, N.S.W., on Feb. 25th, 1834. Her mother had in early life written some successful books for children; and when very young Miss Atkinson wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald a series of papers called “A Voice from the Country,” which attracted considerable notice at the time. Miss Atkinson also wrote “Gertrude” (1857), “Cowanda” (1859), “Tom Hillicker,” and other Australian tales, illustrated by herself. Besides productions published in the Sydney Mail, she was the author of some Kurrajong sketches which appeared in the Town and Country Journal. During her residence at Kurrajong she collected valuable specimens of native plants for Baron F. von Müller, many of which are recorded in “Flora Australiensis” and the “Fragmenta Phytographia Australiæ” The genus Atkinsonia was established in her honour, and the species Epacris Calvertiana was named to indicate her exertions at a later period. In 1870 she married Mr. James Snowden Calvert, who accompanied Dr. Leichardt in his exploring expedition to Port Essington in 1843-5. She died suddenly on April 28th, 1872. Mr. Calvert died in July 1874.

The following is excerpted from The Dictionary of Australian Biography by Percival Searle, published in 1949 by Angus and Robertson and republished by Project Gutenberg.

CALVERT, CAROLINE LOUISA WARING (1834-1872), author and scientist, was born at Oldbury, about three miles from Berrima, New South Wales, on 25 February 1834. Her father, James Atkinson, was the author of an early Australian book, An Account of the State of Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales, published in 1826. He died in 1834 and Miss Atkinson was educated by her mother. She early developed an interest in science and made collections of botanical specimens for Dr Woolls (q.v.), and Baron von Mueller (q.v.). She also published two novels, Gertrude the Emigrant (1857), and Cowanda, The Veteran’s Grant (1859); various other tales by her appeared as serials in the Sydney Mail. Her series of natural history sketches “A Voice from the Country” appeared in the Sydney Mail and Sydney Morning Herald in 1860. Other scientific articles were published in the Sydney Horticultural Magazine of 18645. In 1870 she married Mr James Snowden Calvert (1825-84), a survivor of Leichhardt’s (q.v.) expedition of 1844-5. Mrs Calvert died on 28 April 1872 leaving a daughter.
Mrs Calvert was one of the earliest Australian writers of fiction, but her work in that direction is commonplace and now forgotten. Her botanical work was more important. The genus Atkinsonia was named after her, as was also the species Epacris calvertiana.

This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Caroline Atkinson, later Calvert (her husband was James Snowden Calvert), was largely self-educated in New South Wales, a keen student of natural history and an accomplished botanical illustrator. She was also a populariser of science and published in the “Sydney Morning Herald” and the “Horticultural Magazine”. Over 800 of Atkinson’s specimens are in the National Herbarium of Victoria.

Details
Atkinson was taught by her mother and developed a keen interest in botany and zoology. She wrote popular articles on botany, made drawings and sent numerous specimens to eminent botanists, including William Woolls and Ferdinand von Mueller. She was also an able taxidermist. Commemorated in the Loranthaceous genus Atkinsonia, also Erechtites atkinsoniae and Epacris calvertiana. Additionally a horticulturally distinct fern ranking as a form of Doodia caudata was named in her honour Doodia atkinsonii.

Chronology
1899
Taxonomy event – Eucalyptus macarthurii Deane & Maiden. Atkinson collected a syntype