Kim Todd
Harcourt, New York
2007; 328 pp.
ISBN 0151011087; price: $27 (hardcover)
ISBN 0156032996; price: $15 (paperback, Harvest Books).

In 1699, a 52-year-old woman and her daughter departed from the port of Amsterdam, bound for the Dutch colony of Surinam on the north coast of South America.  If you have no idea of the significance of this event for entomology, then you should.  And regardless, you should read the entire story of Maria Sibylla Merian, as told completely and engagingly by Kim Todd in this new and fascinating biography, also available in paperback.

As the youngest daughter born in 1647 to a family of merchant printers and artists, the specifics of the early life of Maria Merian are sketchy at best.  However, the author has done an admirable job of bringing to light and to life the available biographical information.  European society in Merian’s era frequently posed severe challenges to a woman curious about the natural world and eager to pioneer descriptions of what some thought to be evil worms and other creatures.  A likely fate for such a curious female was to be labeled as a witch and quite possibly burned at the stake or drowned.  Yet there were also modern countercurrents: the increased power of the press and the liberating influence of exploration, trade, and travel.  The Protestant Reformation had set in motion a growing recognition that individuals could not only read the Bible and other books in their own language, but could interpret these works for themselves.  Still, an intelligent and inquiring woman was subject to legal and social limitations.  Women could paint only in watercolor, not in oils, and could not learn Latin.  Depending on the locale, guilds stringently limited a woman’s livelihood in many trades, including engraving and publishing.

In spite of these hurdles, Merian came to be one of the premier entomologists of her time, and arguably the first insect ecologist in the sense that she focused her inquiries on the relationship between insects and their food plants and natural enemies.  To behold her portrait of a rose [below] replete not only with all life stages of a noctuid moth, but also with aphids being consumed by a syrphid larva, its puparium, and its adult stage visiting a nearby flower, is to understand the power of her perceptive insights into life cycles and food chains. 

Chrysalis, the book’s title, not only reflects the fundamental process of complete metamorphosis that occupied Merian’s studies, but also serves as an apt metaphor both for her life and for her legacy.  Her public and publishing life occupied two distinct phases.  The first of these phases began with her sketches of the silkworm, which commenced her lifelong study-book at the age of thirteen in Frankfurt.  It culminated in the publication of her two-volume set Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung (The Caterpillars’ Wondrous Metamorphosis) in Nürnberg (1679 and 1683), where she lived then with her artist husband and two young daughters. 

Her pupal phase encompassed a period of religious introspection with the spartan Labadist sect, and her separation and later divorce from her husband.  During this period and the ensuing several years in Amsterdam, she faced what for a normal woman would have been the insurmountable challenges of earning a living, raising her two daughters, and pursuing her scientific interests.  Yet for her, a new and even more daunting mission took hold: to travel to the New World and to discover and compare the insects and their metamorphoses in the New World.  It was a startling and radical decision on her part, one which required her to give up most of her modest possessions in order to provision the expedition.  Her voyage to Surinam was the first expedition whose purpose was exclusively entomological.  The eventual result of this perilous voyage was her master work, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, published four years after her return, in poor health, in 1701.  Before Humboldt, Wallace, or Darwin, she brought back in vivid watercolor the wonders of the New World, the Tropics, and their canopies: wonders so unbelievable that many did not believe them.  A bird-eating spider?  Nonsense!  That is, until Bates confirmed its existence, almost 150 years later, in Amazonia.

Maria Sibylla Merian’s legacy has also undergone a metamorphosis, divided by a long and shameful period of dormancy and discredit during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  During her life and shortly thereafter, she was known in scientific circles for the dedicated and accomplished scientist and artist she was, based on her pioneering works on both European and Neotropical fauna.

But following her death in 1717, the treasure that was her original Surinam book was bastardized, amended, poorly reproduced, miscolored, and generally confused by authors with no connection to the original author or her travels.  So in an edition issued in 1719, we see a caterpillar about one-third the height of a palm tree, part of an added plate which was a montage of unrelated sketches, some probably not even hers, that lacked the ecological context which was her hallmark.  As science developed into the 19^th century, the patriarchy of professionals who made up the scientific community looked down on so-called amateurs, and especially on women, as dabblers who offered nothing creditable to build upon.  This was a dormant and dark period for her legacy, a period which, happily, has now come to an end.

The historical eclosion of her reputation began with the opening of the Soviet archives in Saint Petersburg, where, just after her death, Peter the Great had in the early 18^th century amassed a huge collection of natural history specimens and artwork, including many of Merian’s original paintings and her original study-book.  Yet it was not until the 1970s that this wonder again came to light in publications by the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and Merian’s contributions started to be given full consideration in a modern context.  Todd’s biography does not end with Merian’s death, but rather with this resurrection, and also in tracking her scientific influence which continues to this day.

Scientifically, Chrysalis has few faults; the author has clearly taken pains to check her entomological particulars, and to thoroughly research the historical literature.  Citation notes, sources, and a detailed index all add to this book’s value.  The one major complaint I have is that, although the book includes eight black & white plates, eight color plates, and several additional line drawings, these are not integrated with the text, nor do the captions place them well in the context of the biography.  This is disappointing because none of Merian’s paintings are copyrighted, and certainly printing technology is now so advanced and inexpensive that her artwork (and accompanying descriptions) could be more generously presented. 

That said, I would heartily recommend the book to any and all entomologists as well as those interested in the history of science and exploration, and its social context.

Donald C. Weber
USDA-ARS Invasive Insect Biocontrol & Behavior Laboratory
Beltsville, MD 20705
phone 301.504.8369
don.weber@ars.usda.gov
American Entomologist
Vol. 55, No. 2, Summer 2009