Work Dress of 19th Century Naturalist Roberta McIntosh

Roberta McIntosh (1843-1869), a talented #sciart artist and early woman in natural history, acted as illustrator for her brother, Dr. William Carmichael McIntosh, who eventually became Chair of Natural History at St. Andrews. There she is (above, very tiiiiiny) in her watercolor, "The McIntosh family collecting specimens on the beach near Spindle Rock." (Image courtesy of the Special Collections of the University of St. Andrews.)

Zoom in. Check out her umbrella (it's not just for rain, fool, it's for tidepooling). Check out her breezy hat ribbons. It's an extraordinary portrait of a 19th century lady naturalist at work, an early woman in science in the field.

"Roberta McIntosh's watercolor drawings of nemertean worm specimens were later to be key to her brother's publications on marine invertebrates, Monograph of the British Marine Annelids, 4 vols."

A polychaete worm. (Image courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library.)
More worms.  More early women in science and what they wore.

Below is a checked work dress, France, c. 1840 (image courtesy of Whitaker Auction, the Tasha Tudor collection). It's twenty years before McIntosh's field marine science prime time, but I would totally tidepool in it in a hat with breeze-blown ribbons.