Mini 18 Annie Richards

Hello, my dear leaflets, 

Annie Richards was the first white woman to reside in Fowler Bay and lived through the harsh conditions of that area.  She collected flowers for Mueller and Tate.  She was instrumental in the collating of some of the amazing plant specimens in the collection housed at the National Australian Herbarium.

Plants synonymous to Annie and Thomas:

Eucalyptus youngiana F.Muell (1876) as 'Richardson',

Erysimum richardsii F.Muell. (1877),

Parmelia hypoxantha Müll.Arg. (1881),

Parmelia conspersa var. polyphylloides Müll.Arg. (1883),

Puccinia wurmbeae Cooke & Massee (1888),

Helipterum troedelii F.Muell. (1890), as 'Mrs Richards',

Helipterum jessenii F.Muell. (1890),

Bassia longicuspis F.Muell. (1891), as 'Mrs Richards', and

Nicotiana goodspeedii H.-M.Wheeler (1935), as 'Richards'.

Photo N0: 11879 Anne and Tom Richards at the Police house Fowlers Bay 1883 Thanks to the State Library of SA D 6462/5 (L)

https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P006279b.htm

https://www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au/2024/10/another-lady-plant-collector-annie-richards-of-south-australia/

https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/richards-a&t.html

https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/richards-anne-frances.html

https://jackhassard.org/ever-lastings-annie-richards-the-19th-century-flower-hunter-a-new-book-by-roger-cross/

https://eoas.info/biogs/A002095b.htm

https://www.pittwateronlinenews.com/collectingladieswomenbotanicalartistsbypennyolsen.php

https://www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au/2024/10/another-lady-plant-collector-annie-richards-of-south-australia/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, my name is Danny and I am a horticulturalist. Welcome to my little podcast, Leaves, Stems and Roots. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we are living. I would like to pay my respects to Elders past and present. Minnie. Episode 18, Annie Richards. Hello, my dear leaflets. Quote, Annie is a totally neglected and forgotten flower hunter and would-be naturalist. Although her story seems tragic, she overcame all her difficulties to collect about a thousand Australian wildflowers over a period of 20 years. Roger Cross, 2024, author of biography Everlasting's Become Me by Annie Richards, the flower hunter. There is actually more to this quote, but it will be in the show notes. 1845 to 1930. It's a mini Hello my dear leaflets. If you want to know more about plant collections, please listen to episode 35 that I've just actually posted. Anne Frances Richards was born in England in 1845. She preferred the name Annie, so this is how I will address her from now on. Annie was born to chemists Richard Crafter and Anne. They migrated to Adelaide, South Australia in 1852 when Annie was eight years old. So yes, she may have been English, but her formative years were in Australia. As a chemist, Richard Crafter established a druggist, now known as a chemist in Wollunga, in 1857. The building is still there today. In her teenage years, Richard taught his daughter the preparation of regular and herbal medicines. It was through this that Annie became interested in plants and her wild knowledge in herbal plants started. In 1867, Annie married police trooper Thomas Paul Richards. They resided in Fowler Bay as Thomas was stationed there. At this time Annie was the first white woman to reside in this area. It was a very hard going and Annie had to adapt to the harshed conditions of this time. Her husband's drinking over long periods probably didn't help the situation, but she made the best of the conditions. Let's remember that this would have been a time when it was difficult to explore areas, and the mallee seemed to go on and on to the north of where they settled, and a lot of this hadn't been explored yet. This actually would be positive to her future flower collecting. There were sandy dunes to contend with and the only way in and out of Ala Bay were ships. This also added a bit of fear to her as they were never quite sure on who would be coming to their camp. However, she and her husband were good hosts to those who visited. Amongst these were people who actually helped Annie in her future endeavours of flower collecting. A couple of these were explorers Ernest Giles and John Forrest. Giles was instrumental in the teachings of Annie of collecting and preparing plant specimens, and like Rupert, he watched her studies carefully. He also introduced her to Baron Ferdinand von Mueller in Melbourne. I'll talk more about him and her involvement in his collections in a bit. She also collected for Professor Ralph Tate of the University of Melbourne, and that collection is now in the Adelaide Herbarium. She made such an impression on Tate that he appointed her as a lady corresponding member of the Royal Society of South Australia. Yes, she was given the papers of this prestigious honour, but she as a she was not allowed to attend any of the meetings. Side note, Constance Margaret Eardley was the first acting female member who could actually attend the meetings of this society, but this didn't happen until 1943. Anne's herbal medicine knowledge endeared her to the local Aboriginals and were often helping them gather important plants, and in return they would help her with finding new plants for her collections. Thomas also collected plants off and on, but it was her achievements and quality which shone. Annie collected for Mula m E L specimens, including fungi at fowler. What is MEL specimen? Nothing to do with Brooks or Gibson, I assure you. The fact that these people weren't even a twinkle in their unborn mothers and fathers yet. MEL stands for Natural Herbarium of Victoria, Melbourne, an internationally significant botanical institution holding over 1.5 million preserved plant, algae, and fungi specimens located in Melbourne with historical collections dating back to 1770. It is a vital resource for global plant taxonomy and research. As a Victorian, I find this awe-inspiring that my capital city houses such a monumental chasm to this amazing collection. And to think that some of these specimens are from the 1700s, it's just mind-boggling. You may remember a few more of my ladies that we've done in the past have also added to this collection and other collections around Australia. And Mueller, we have spoken about him a few times in the past, but as a very brief rundown, he was the dude who developed the herbarium for a collection of plants. He was instrumental in making the herbarium in Melbourne, and if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have it. So he was pretty impressive. There are hundreds of plants named after him, and I'm sure you have a Mueller rye somewhere in your garden. Mueller was a brilliant man, as I said. He devoted his life to botany and his collection at the Natural Herbarium of Melbourne. He was shy but driven and had very rigid thoughts and opinions about everything. I may be reading too much into this, but one might suggest he would have been diagnosed with autism if he was around today. His quirk, and yes, many of the articles I read about him described this attribute I'm about to talk about as a quirk, was about how he viewed women. And I know it was the times. He never married, but he believed that all women were good for was domestication or being told what to do. The fact that he enjoyed hiring, and I air quoted that, because of course you can see me, women for his collecting, because to Mueller, women were gentle and calm and would mount his specimens with ease. These women, which were only recognized as more than the et al at the end of the paragraph, were only recognized in 2014. This was, however, imagined from the ninth from 1984. It was just difficult to get all the information that was needed until the herbarium became virtual in the 2000s. This was when the majority of discoveries were made. So the list was formed and it is known as Moroska and Vaughn. I think reading through the lines, Mueller hired, yes, again with the air quotes, women because he didn't have to A recognise them and add them to his list of achievements because he wouldn't want that at all. And B, he didn't have to pay them because apparently he said that they didn't need money. He was doing them a favour. Yes, I poo-pooed him. But as I said at the beginning of this rant, he was a brilliant man, and perhaps these quirks and eccentricities he had was what made him so focused and egocentric. As I said before, Annie collected for Mueller, including Fungi, when she was in Fowler Bay with her husband. And the only other woman at this time to be mentioned was Georgina Malloy, which we have talked about in a previous episode. I will probably do an episode about the women collectors who were only a number in Mueller's mind in a future mini. These women surely need a voice, although I know I'm not the first one who's talked about them. Annie and Thomas moved from Fowler Bay after being there for 17 years. They never had any children. I think the collections were Annie's babies. They moved to Port Augusta, to Tetolpa, Warina, to Port Priory, to Georgetown, Jamestown, Mount Barker and Moonta for his work. There is a bunch of other areas and dates she collected from, which is interesting but will be dry listening. So I will add she collected all over South Australia. She also collected in Brisbane and New South Wales. As I said, she was one of the only plant collectors we know about, and unfortunately none of the thousand plus specimens bears her name, but one was named after her. There are a few that are synonymous with her and her husband, but I'll add them to the show notes because you don't want to hear me butcher the names. Mueller must have liked Annie because in 1885 he gave his copy of Select Extra-Tropical Plants. Annie became invested in the Australian bush and became a renowned naturalist. Her husband Thomas passed away in Adelaide in 1915. There is not much more information about her, but she was treasured and loved. Her plant collecting lasted for 20 years. Annie died in 1930 in South Australia. Every article I read said the same thing. She died of senile decay. I got most of my information from the State Library Museum and specific websites, which are in the show notes. There is a biography about her called Everlastings Become Me, Annie Richards, the flower hunter. I didn't read it because I couldn't find it. It's not for loan unless you are in the actual library. And I was able to read excerpts from it, and it was very interesting. I hope you enjoyed learning about this lovely lady. And until next time, too do all media pertaining to this episode will be in the show notes. Please follow through Instagram and we now have a Facebook group. Please remember to rate and review. And remember to pull up your plants so we can get dirty.