Born: 11 September 1845, United Kingdom
Died: 21 January 1927
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Mary Anne Saunders
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Botanist and illustrator Mary Anne Stebbing also worked with her husband, helping to classify specimens and producing sketches for his books. Yet all their joint work was published under his name only—Stebbing never published any research under her own name. Her skills as a botanical illustrator were highly regarded enough that she was part of the first cohort of eleven women admitted to the Linnean Society of London. When Fellow Lord Frank Crisp, whose wife was one of the eleven, commissioned a painting of the women, he commented of Stebbing, “we must surely have at the table a lady Fellow who has done something, not one without a record.” She was painted over and replaced with an empty chair.