Matilda Cullen Knowles
| Matilda Cullen Knowles | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 31 January 1864 Ballymena, Ireland |
| Died | 27 April 1933 (aged 69) Dublin, Ireland |
| Fields | Lichenology |
| Institutions | National Museum of Ireland |
| Alma mater | Royal College of Science for Ireland |
| Known for | Formative study of Irish lichens |
| Influences | Robert Lloyd Praeger, Annie Lorrain Smith, Mary Leebody |
| Influenced | Maura Scannell |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | M.Knowles |
Matilda Cullen Knowles FRSC (31 January 1864 – 27 April 1933) is considered the founder of modern studies of Irish lichens following her work in the early twentieth century on the multi-disciplinary Clare Island Survey. From 1923 she shared curatorship of the National Museum of Ireland herbarium – a collection of dried and pressed plants now housed at the National Botanic Gardens. Her work is said to have "formed an important baseline contribution to the cryptogamic botany of Ireland and western oceanic Europe".
Knowles was born in Cullybackey near Ballymena, Ireland, in 1864. Her early interest in botany was encouraged by her father, William James Knowles, himself an amateur scientist who would take Matilda and her sister to meetings of the Belfast Naturalists field club. This is where she first met Robert Lloyd Praeger who continued to be a lifelong influence. In 1895 she was introduced to the Derry botanist Mary Leebody and together they worked on a supplement to Samuel Stewart and T.H.Corey's 1888 book the Flora of the North-east of Ireland. T.H.Corey was credited posthumously as he had died on an expedition in Ireland.
She then volunteered to help with the crowd sourcing of material about the plants of Tyrone County. Whilst completing this work Knowles published her own first paper about Tyrone's flowering plants in 1897. Knowles eventually sent in over 500 examples that were considered for inclusion in the Irish Topographical Botany, which Praeger published in 1901.
Knowles and her sister, Catherine, then attended the Royal College of Science for Ireland for a year where she took natural science classes some time between 1896 and 1900.
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