Margaret Sibella Brown

Margaret Sibella Brown (March 2, 1866 – November 16, 1961) was a Canadian bryologist specializing in mosses and liverworts native to Nova Scotia. Although lacking formal scientific training, she has been recognized for her contributions to bryology and as an authority on the mosses and liverworts of Nova Scotia. Samples she collected are now housed at major herbaria in North America and Europe.

Margaret Sibella Brown
Born	(1866-03-02)March 2, 1866 Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia
Died	November 16, 1961(1961-11-16) (aged 95) Halifax, Nova Scotia
Nationality	Canadian
Known for	Contributions to bryology
Awards	Master of Arts (honoris causa), Acadia University (1950)

Family and early life

 

Brown, age 7

 

Brown and her twin sister, Elizabeth, in the conservatory at Beech Hill, Sydney Mines. Child is unidentified.

Margaret Sibella Brown was born on March 2, 1866, in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia.^[1][2] She had a twin sister, Elizabeth Purves (1866–1951), as well as three younger siblings: Annie Ethel (1869–1918), Richard Charles (1872–1951), and Lillian Seward (1878–1967).^[3][4]

Brown's grandfather, Richard Brown (1805–1882) was born in Lowther, England. In 1825, he moved to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to take an engineering position at the coal mines there, eventually becoming general manager. In 1834, he met Margaret's grandmother, Margaret Sibella Barrington (1836–1854) whom he married that year. One of the couple's six children was Brown's father, Richard Henry (1837–1920), who took over as general manager of the mines when his father retired in 1864 and returned to England.^[3]

In 1864, Richard Henry married Barbara Davison (1842–1898) in Pictou, after which they lived in Sydney Mines where they raised a family^[3] and he served as the town's first mayor.^[5]

Brown had a paternal aunt, also named Margaret Sibella Brown (1836–1854).^[3] Sibella Annie Barrington was related through Brown's grandfather, Richard Brown.^[6]

Education

Brown's early education was at the Anglican School for Girls and Kings College in Halifax, from which she graduated with a bachelor of arts.^[7] She then attended the Anglo-German Institute, a finishing school in Stuttgart, Germany, from 1883 to 1884, and also studied in London. After returning to Nova Scotia in 1885, she attended the Victoria School of Art and Design (now NSCAD University).^[8]

Scientific career

As a bryologist, Brown mainly collected and classified mosses and liverworts native to Nova Scotia.^[1] Most of her work was in Cape Breton, but she also collected specimens from Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Spain, France, and Jamaica.^[7] The standard author abbreviation M.S.Br. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[9]

During Brown's lifetime, women scientists were unusual^[8] and there is little contemporaneous record of her scientific career. She published at least eight scientific papers.^[8] Her first paper, published in 1932 in The Bryologist, describes the new moss species Entosthodon neoscoticus.^[8] In 1936, she published an extensive catalogue of Nova Scotian mosses and hepatics in Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science.^[8] A 1937 paper categorized a collection of moss samples gathered in Syria by William Bacon Evans.^[10]

Brown worked with Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, Nathaniel Lord Britton, and Joseph Edward Little, as co-collectors of specimens.^[11] She went on one expedition to Puerto Rico with Elizabeth and Nathaniel Britton in January 1922, with a planned duration of ten weeks.^[12] The results of that expedition were presented in April of that year.^[13]

Society and board memberships

Brown belonged to the Moss Exchange Club (later known as the British Bryological Society)^[14] and the Sullivant Moss Society (later known as the American Bryological and Lichenological Society).^[8] She was president of the Halifax Floral Society. Before she died at the age of 95, she was the oldest living member of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science.^[8]

Brown served on the board of the Victoria School of Art and Design and was a member of its education committee.^[8] During World War I, she was honorary secretary of the Halifax branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society.^[8]

Honours

 

Yale University Herbarium catalog card. Text reads: Lejeunea patens Lindb. / On rocks. New Brunswick / Long Island, Kennebecaisis / (Collected by) M. S. Brown July '23

Brown was awarded an honorary M.A. from Acadia University on May 16, 1950, at the age of 84.^[7][8][15] She was offered an honorary Ph.D., which she declined in favour of the M.A.^[8] The graduation program noted that she was "probably the chief Maritime authority on mosses and liverworts".^[7] In 1934, she received an honorary diploma from the Victoria School of Art and Design.^[8] Brown was inducted into the Nova Scotia Scientific Hall of Fame in 2010.^[8]

In an invited paper at the 1976 annual meeting of the American Society of Bryology and Lichenology, Brown was listed as one of "the more important North American muscologists and collectors", noting that she was among those who "made the most lasting impact on muscology".^[16]

Collections

The E.C. Smith Herbarium at Acadia University contains her collection of 1779 mosses, 858 hepatics, and 53 lichens.^[8] Other of her specimens are in the collections of the British Museum, New York Botanical Garden, Dalhousie University, the New Brunswick Museum, the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, the Devonian Botanical Garden at the University of Alberta, the Yale University Herbarium, and the Harvard University Herbaria.^[8][17][18]

Death

Brown died in her Halifax home on November 16, 1961. There is some question about the date of death; most sources give it as November 15. Her official death certificate says November 16, which is used here.^[2]

Brown's middle name is variously spelled Sibella, Sybella, or Sebella, in different sources. Although her death certificate uses Sebella, Sibella is used in this article, as that is the spelling most commonly used in sources talking about her scientific career.^[2]

References

1. "Brown, Margaret Sibella". The Nova Scotian Institute of Science. April 4, 2013. from the original on August 12, 2019. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
2. "Margaret Sebella Brown death at Halifax, Halifax County on November 16, 1961". Nova Scotia Archives. Province of Nova Scotia. O2-006233. from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
3. "Richard Brown family fonds". Nova Scotia Archives. from the original on April 22, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
4. "Brown family fonds – Beaton Institute Digital Archives". beatoninstitute.com. from the original on October 17, 2018. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
5. "People / Richard Brown". Sydney Mines Heritage Museum. from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
6. Arlee Hoyt McGee. "Barrington, Sibella Annie". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto/Université Laval. from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
7. . Acadia Bulletin. XXXVI (4): 12, 14. June 1950. Archived from the original on October 13, 2018. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
8. "Inductees to the NS Scientific Hall of Fame: Margaret Sibella Brown, A Nova Scotian Bryologist". Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science. Vol. 45, part 2. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nova Scotian Institute of Science. 2010. pp. 152–154. ISSN 0078-2521.
9. International Plant Names Index.  M.S.Br.
10. Brown, Margaret S. (October 1937). "Mosses from Syria". The Bryologist. 40 (5): 84–85. doi:10.2307/3239666. JSTOR 3239666.
11. "Brown, Margaret Sibella (1866-1961) on JSTOR". plants.jstor.org. from the original on October 13, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
12. "Notes, News and Comment". Journal of the New York Botanical Garden. XXIII: 7. January 1922. ISSN 0885-4165. from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021 – via Google Books.
13. "Botanical Investigations in Puerto Rico". Journal of the New York Botanical Garden. XXIII: 49–59. April 1922. ISSN 0885-4165. from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021 – via Google Books.
14. Lawley, Mark. "Members of the Moss Exchange Club (1896–1923) and British Bryological Society (1923–1945)" (PDF). The British Bryological Society. (PDF) from the original on May 9, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
15. "Margaret Sybella Brown Receiving Honorary Degree – Beaton Institute Digital Archives". beatoninstitute.com. from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
16. Steere, William Campbell (July 1977). "North American Muscology and Muscologists: A Brief History". Botanical Review. 43 (3): ii–343. doi:10.1007/BF02860715. JSTOR 4353922. S2CID 33676907. from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2021 – via JSTOR.
17. "Yale University Herbarium, Peabody Museum of Natural History". Frullania collaborative research network. from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
18. "Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries: Index of Botanical Specimens". kiki.huh.harvard.edu. from the original on August 15, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2020.

Additional reading

• Biography of Sibella's grandfather, Richard Brown. Vernon, Charles William (1903). Cape Breton, Canada, at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century. Toronto: Nation Publishing Co. pp. 16 – via Internet Archive.
• Margaret Sibella Brown on Bionomia.