A snippet from my volunteer work on the ‘Dedicated Naturalist’ Project, helping to decipher and digitise, record and publicise the life’s work of naturalist extraordinaire, Dr Mary Gillham.

As part of my current work to research and write the story of Mary’s life for the project website, I was, this week, going through items from Mary’s university days – she held a BSc in agriculture and botany from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth and a PhD from the University of Wales at Bangor. Amongst the treasures Mary had retained was a folder of botanical drawings, and I couldn’t resist choosing a few to scan for the website and also to share here.

The paper Mary used is tissue-thin so doesn’t scan well – the details on the reverse show through – and I’ve had to clean this up a lot on photoshop. It’s still not great but I love the level of detail in these drawings and, as Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) is still to be found blooming here and there (photographed yesterday), this seemed a good flower to feature.

For the full story about the Mary Gillham Archive Project, check out our blog, https://marygillhamarchiveproject.wordpress.com/  and follow our progress on Facebook and on Twitter.