Maria Sibylla Merian: A Passion for Plants and Insects

The artist and scientist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was born in Frankfurt, Germany, into a middle-class family of publishers and artists. At the age of fifty-two, Merian traveled with her younger daughter to Suriname, a Dutch territory in South America, to paint its exotic insects. She was an adventurous woman way ahead of her time, whose amazing career as an artist, writer and teacher revolutionized botany and zoology. Come learn more about this fascinating woman.