Margaret Fountaine

Margaret Fountaine (1862-1940) was born in Norfolk. She combined her love of butterflies with her ability as an artist. She travelled the world and became an expert in tropical butterfly life cycles. Since her death at the beginning of World War II, changes have taken place in the science of entomology, leading to a focus on theory over taxonomy and academically trained scientists over self-taught experts. Margaret Fountaine's private diaries were unsealed in 1978, showing she had had two affairs during her expeditions to the Amazon.

She raised many of her specimens from eggs or caterpillars, giving her extremely high quality specimens, 22,000 of which are housed at the Norwich Castle Museum. Her four sketch books of butterfly life-cycles are held at the Natural History Museum in London.

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See also

• Entomology
• Butterfly