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Bella MacCallum

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Bella MacCallum
Born1886 (1886)
Died17 March 1927(1927-03-17) (aged 40–41)
Alma mater
Spouse
  • Lance (Lancelot) Shadwell Jennings
    (m. 1915; died 1916)
    Professor Peter MacCallum
    (m. 1919⁠–⁠1927)
Scientific career
FieldsBotany and Mycology

Bella Dytes MacIntosh MacCallum (née Cross, 1886 – 17 March 1927) was a New Zealand and British botanist and mycologist and was New Zealand's first female doctor of science.[1][2]

Early life and education

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MacCallum was born in Timaru, New Zealand, the daughter of George and Rebecca Cross.[3] She attended Timaru Girls' High School, then Canterbury College, earning a bachelor's degree in 1908 and a master's degree in 1909 with First Class Honours in botany, focussing on halophyte plant adaptations to salty soil.[4] Her master's degree involved field observations and anatomical studies, and compared botanical formations in Christchurch to Timaru.[5] She was awarded a National Research Scholarship, which she used to continue research on wetland plants.[4] She taught at high-schools before she earned her doctorate from the University of New Zealand in 1917 with a thesis on Phormium (N.Z. flax), titled Phormium with Regard to Its Economic Importance; a work whose origins in 1909 were inspired by the work and advice of Dr Leonard Cockayne.[2][4][6] She represented her university in tennis, was a member of the hockey 1st XI, and the Executive of the Students' Association.[2]

Family

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Lance Jennings

In 1915, MacCallum married Lance (Lancelot) Shadwell Jennings, and became known as Bella Jennings.[3] Both were tennis champions and researchers.[2] Captain Jennings was killed on 15 September 1916 at the Western Front, aged 23.[7] In 1919, she married Peter MacCallum at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. She had three daughters from her second marriage.[3]

Career and research

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In 1919, MacCallum moved to England, where she studied bacteriology at Cambridge Medical School, then moved to the University of Edinburgh, where she researched fungi, specifically timber staining fungi,[4] publishing Some Wood-Staining Fungi in 1920.[6] She was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1921. Less is known about her life after this point; she moved to Australia when husband Peter MacCallum was elected Chair of Pathology at Melbourne University,[5] and died on 17 March 1927,[6] giving birth to their third daughter, Bella.[1]

In 2017, MacCallum featured as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words" project, celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b Riley, Robyn (19 April 2009). "60 years of Sir Peter MacCallum's dream". Sunday Herald Sun. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d Thomson, A.D. "Some Pioneer Women Graduates in Botany from Canterbury University College" (PDF). Centre for Studies on N.Z. Science History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  3. ^ a b c "Social Notes". The Australasian. 26 March 1927. p. 54. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Royal Society Te Apārangi - Bella MacCullum". royalsociety.org.nz. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  5. ^ a b Creese, Mary R. S. (2010). Ladies in the laboratory III : South African, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian women in science : nineteenth and early twentieth centuries : a survey of their contributions. Creese, Thomas M. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810872899. OCLC 659564120.
  6. ^ a b c Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. Taylor & Francis. p. 818. ISBN 9780415920407.
  7. ^ "Lancelot Shadwell Jennings". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 31 March 2016.