Margaret Ursula Mee

Místo: Whitehill

Narozený: 1909

Smrt: 1988

Životopis:

Margaret Ursula Mee, MBE (22 May 1909 – 30 November 1988) was a British botanical artist who specialised in plants from the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest. She was also one of the first environmentalists to draw attention to the impact of large-scale mining and deforestation on the Amazon Basin. Mee moved to Brazil in 1952 to teach art in the British school of São Paulo, where she became a botanical artist for São Paulo's Instituto de Botanica in 1958. She explored the rainforest and more specifically Amazonas state from 1964, painting the plants she saw, some new to science, as well as collecting some for later illustration. She created 400 folios of gouache illustrations, 40 sketchbooks, and 15 diaries. Mee travelled to Washington D. C., USA, in 1964 and briefly to England in 1968 for the exhibition and publication of her book, Flowers of the Brazilian Forests. She joined protests to draw international attention to the deforestation of the Amazon region. Mee travelled to London in 1988 for the publication of her book In Search of Flowers of the Amazon Forests. She died following a car crash in Seagrave, Leicestershire, on 30 November 1988. In January 1989 a memorial to her life, botanical work and environmental campaigning took place in Kew Gardens. In 1976 Mee was awarded the MBE for services to Brazilian botany and a fellowship of the Linnean Society in 1986. She also received recognition in Brazil including an honorary citizenship of Rio in 1975 and the Brazilian order of Cruzeiro do Sul in 1979. In her honour, after her death the Margaret Mee Amazon Trust was founded to further education and research in Amazonian plant life and conservation. It closed in 1996 but the fellowships it provided for Brazilian botanical students and plant illustrators who wished to study in the United Kingdom continued. In 1990 Mee was recognised for her environmental achievements by The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and added to its Global 500 Roll of Honour.