Born: 1900, Australia
Died: 1999
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Gladys Coleman
This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Gladys Thomson was a trained scientist with a talent for precise, detailed illustrations. In 1929 and again in 1932 she travelled to Cape York with her husband Donald where they carried out ethnographic research on local aboriginal people and made substantial collections of mammals, birds and reptiles. Upon her return to Melbourne Thomson would make pen-and-ink illustrations of the specimens and writings about their trips. She prepared illustrations for many of her husband’s anthropological works which were published in widely. She also prepared a series of tinted photographs and illustrations for Alfred Ewart’s book The Flora of Victoria. Much of her work is housed as part of the Donald Thomson Collection at the Museum of Victoria.
Chronology
1928
Education – Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Melbourne
1929
Career position – Expedition to Cape York
1931
Career position – Illustrated The Flora of Victoria by A. Ewart
1932 – 1933
Career position – Expedition to Cape York