Thereza Mary Dillwyn Llewelyn

Place: Penllergaer

Born: 1834

Death: 1926

Biography:

Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn was a Welsh astronomer and pioneer in scientific photography. Born in Penllergaer, Wales in 1834, she was the eldest of six children to photographer and botanist John Dillwyn Llewelyn and Emma Thomasina Talbot. She developed an interest in photography and astronomy despite these being uncommon endeavors for women during the Victorian era. Her family was active in science and photography, including her mother's cousin Henry Fox Talbot and her aunt Mary Dillwyn, one of the earliest female photographers in Wales. Thereza married Nevil Story-Maskelyne, a professor of mineralogy at Oxford University, on 29 June 1858. Through him, she began a correspondence with Charles Darwin. Together they had two daughters: Mary, who later married politician and writer H.O. Arnold-Forster, and Domestic science advocate Thereza who went on to marry.