Scientist of the Day - Melville Christie Fleming
Detail of plate showing zoophytes, engraving by William Lizars after drawings by Melville C. Fleming, in The Philosophy of Zoology, by John Fleming, plate 5, 1822 (Linda Hall Library)
Melville Christie Fleming, a Scottish illustrator of natural history, was born on Aug. 9, 1795, and baptized on Aug. 13. Since the former date fell on a Sunday this year, we celebrate the latter today.
Title page, The Philosophy of Zoology, by John Fleming, 1822 (Linda Hall Library)
Melville came close to leaving no historical record at all. We know about her because: a) we find the initials "M.F." on 5 engravings that appeared in a book published by husband John in 1822, whom John identified as his wife in the preface, and: b) John, a vicar, could afford to have an elaborate obelisk monument erected in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh, providing us with Melville's dates of birth and death.
A bat, a seal, a porpoise, and the milk tusk of a common narwhal, engraving by William Lizars after drawings by Melville C. Fleming, in The Philosophy of Zoology, by John Fleming, plate 1, 1822 (Linda Hall Library)
We wrote a post on John 6 years ago, in which I mentioned that Melville did the drawings for The Philosophy of Zoology (1822), and we showed two of her plates, illustrating a duck, and two fish, one of which was a flatfish. Here we include two different plates. Our opening image is a detail of a plate depicting "zoophytes," "plant-animals," as certain protozoa were called at the time. It is beautifully drawn; Melville was a talented artist.
Detail of plate showing the milk tusk of a common narwhal, with signatures of “M.F.” (Melville Fleming, artist) and William H. Lizars (engraver), in The Philosophy of Zoology, by John Fleming, plate 1, 1822 (Linda Hall Library)
We include plate 1 twice (third and fourth images), the second time as a detail, to show the milk tusk of a narwhal, and Melville's initials "M.F." below at left. The engraver named on the right, William H. Lizars, would, a few years later, introduce John James Audubon to the scientific society of Edinburgh, and engrave the first 10 plates of Birds of America, before Audubon moved the enterprise to London.
Detail of page in the preface in which the drawings on the plates are attributed to “the pencil of his wife,” The Philosophy of Zoology, by John Fleming, page xv, 1822 (Linda Hall Library)
We also show the brief mention of Melville in the preface of John's book, where the illustrations are attributed to “his wife” (fifth image).
Tombstone of John and Melville Fleming, Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh (Wikimedia commons)
For many years I was unable to find birth and death dates for Melville. Then, not long ago, I noticed that the photo of John's grave monument on Wikipedia is a high-resolution image. So I zoomed in and, sure enough, there were Melville's dates, born Aug. 9, 1795, and died Dec. 6, 1862 (seventh image). So now we know. Welcome to the historical record, Melville Christie Fleming.
Detail of the tombstone of John and Melville Fleming, revealing the birth and death dates of Melville C. Fleming, Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh (Wikimedia commons)
William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu.
