In Chrysalis, Montana writer Kim
Todd travels to Amsterdam and Surinam and brings back the story of
a pioneering field scientist, one whose intellectual descendants
still wander the modern West. Todd traces the 17th-century life of
Maria Sibylla Merian, the daughter of a German printer, who defied
convention to become one of the most diligent and adventurous
naturalists of her time.
In Merian’s day, most
people thought insects — and a host of other creatures
— were the product of spontaneous generation. “Insects
were born from the mud,” writes Todd. “From dew. From
books. Old snow gave birth to flies. Old wool to moths. Cheese to
worms. Raindrops yielded frogs, and a woman’s hair could turn
to snakes if left in the sun.” Throughout a lifetime of
untiring observation — “There are few other examples of
such a single-minded scientific obsession,” Todd notes
— Merian, who had little formal education, helped confound
these fantastical theories, using her artistic talents to document
the metamorphosis of insects in their natural habitats.
Her full-immersion research methods, which took her into the sweaty
rainforests of Surinam at the age of 52, were unusual at a time
when most naturalists studied insects in collections, or through
the lenses of newfangled microscopes. Her elaborate South American
paintings were reproduced in a book, which not only created a stir
among naturalists of her time but also helped lay the foundation
for modern ecology. Today, scientists from Montana to Arizona and
beyond use the field techniques Merian pioneered, hoping to
understand the complex interplay between insects and their
environment.
On the strength of Merian’s artwork,
her scant surviving writings, and Todd’s own prodigious
historical research, Chrysalis recreates the
naturalist’s time and travels, gracefully describing the
society she lived in and rebelled against. Todd pieces together
Merian’s personal and professional struggles, revealing her
faults and weaknesses as well as her heroic leaps. In the years
after her death, Merian’s once-respected work fell into
obscurity, and her books and paintings scattered to various
collections. Todd uncovers her forgotten legacy, which flutters
through the wild spaces of the West on a butterfly’s wing.
Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of
Metamorphosis Kim Todd
328 pages,
hardcover:
$27.
Harcourt, 2007.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Madame Merian and her passion for metamorphosis.
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