Evelyn Cheesman - entomologist of the world
“When man, after much toil and a great expenditure of mental energy, succeeds finally in reaching some new goal to which he had aspired, in all probability, if he were to make inquiries, he would be forced to come to the humiliating conclusion that the little insect was there before him”
The Natural History Museum 1881
As a fitting strike of fate, the new Natural History Museum of London opened its gates the same year as Lucy Evelyn Cheesman was born, in 1881. Back then however, nobody would have believed that the museum would be no less than 70 000 specimen richer because of her.
CHeesman’s early years
Growing up in the Kent countryside, Nature was Cheesman’s playground. She would roam the fields, pick flowers, collect insects and try to figure out what made glow worms glow. Her mother is said to have encouraged her interest in the natural world, and as a young woman Cheesman wanted to study veterinary science. But in a patriarchal world, passion and talent is not enough to make the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons accept female students.
She worked as a governess at Gumley Hall for a couple of years, a large manor house in Leicestershire built in 1764. The estate was bought by the Murray-Smiths in 1897, and was their home until 1940 (after years of neglect following a time as an apartment building, the estate was demolished in 1964), Little is known about Cheesmans time at Gumle, but she has been said to not have found it “congenial”.
Gumley Hall 1903.
Croydon High Street, 1900
In 1912 she was sponsored by a friend to train as a canine nurse and took up work at a canine hospital just outside of Croydon, south London. But Cheesman wanted to travel, and perhaps she had saved some of her earnings from her time at Gumley, because was able to travel in both Germany and France in the following years, teaching herself French and German.
Her skills in languages were put to use later, during World War I, when she worked as a civil servant at the Admiralty, employed to detect businesses that were German sympathizers for the Neutral and Enemy Trade Index (NETI).
Berlin, 1910
Paris, 1911
Curator of the Insect House
The devastation of the war brought many changes to Europe. A new world was emerging. Women were accepted into occupations that they previously had been excluded from, and in 1918 the Representation of the People Act was passed which allowed women over the age of 30, who met a property qualification, to vote in the UK (it took until 1928 for women to get equal rights as men).
It was at this time of change that Cheesman met Harold Maxwell-Lefroy. He was professor of entomology at Imperial College of Science and honorary curator of the insect house at the London Zoological Gardens. Their shared interest of insects and natural science made them good friends and in 1917, when Cheesman was 36 years old, she accepted a temporary position at the London Zoo, as an assisting curator at the Insect House.
The Insect House was in a poor state after the war, and Cheesman put her mind to revitalising the exhibition. With a net and the help of local school children, she set out to re-stock with British fauna.
Soon the Insect House flourished and her entomological work got her noticed. In 1919 she became a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London and in 1920 she was the first woman to be hired as a curator at London Zoo.
An employee at the London Zoo in the 1920s, Cheesman would have been able to see one of the last living Tasmanian tigers in the world.
Evelyn Cheesman, covered in butterflies.
A zookeeper walking chimps at the London Zoo in 1931
The St George Expedition
A now established entomologist, Cheesman was invited on a voyage to the Galapagos, as the group’s official entomologist. As it happens, she was not to be the only pioneer female entomologist on the journey, the woman later known as “Madame Dragonfly”, Cynthia Longfield (read my blog post on her life HERE), boarded as well.
Unlike Longfield, Cheesman had not come from wealth or name, but one would like to think that the two women would have become friends. They appear to be similar in their determination, aptitude for research and adventurous nature. And their great talent for entomology.
The journey to the Pacific started in Dartmouth, where the ship St George set sail in April 1924, Cheeesman was 43 and Longfield 28 years old. The expedition was a mix of scientists and tourists, all with different interests and reasons to go. Perhaps the private organisers tried to please too many different aims, because Cheesman considered the expedition to be failing in terms of organisation. And more importantly, the project had substantial financial problems.
Cheesman in 1924
Members of the St George on the beach of the island of giant cacti, the Galapagos
Developing as a collector
Consequently, when the ship reach Tahiti, Cheesman left. However, this was not a set-back for her goal to collect specimen and explore. She continued her expedition by herself, travelling in the Pacific and the islands surrounding Tahiti, funded by £100 her brother Bob sent her when hearing about her leaving the St George. The journey to Galapagos, and Cheesman’s disappointment in others ability to plan and run an expedition, had made her determine to here on after travel alone.
When she arrived back in England, she had collected around 500 specimens, including a new species of grasshopper.
Before leaving the expedition, Cheesman and the rest of the crew had successfully arrived on the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas and the Tuamotus. In the Marquesas, Cheesman had almost died in a fall, being saved at the last minute by two sturdy brackens that she managed to grab on to before going over an edge and hitting the rocks below. This would not be the first time one of her adventures became dangerous.
Checkered beetles, Pelonium longfieldae, part of the Cyril Colenette collection, collected during the St. George Expedition to the Galapagos.jpg
Evelyn Cheesman on one of her expeditions
TRavelling the remote islands of the world
When Cheesman returned to London, she left London Zoological Gardens and started as a volunteer at the Natural History Museum. As this position was without pay, she supported herself by starting to write books about her adventures and give lectures.
In 1928 she planned her return to the South Pacific, this time to collect on behalf of the Museum. This endeavour was met with patriarchal opposition by the British high commissioner who had doubts “as to the advisability of a Lady who is unaccompanied, engaging in scientific research” and the archbishop of Canterbury opposed sending an unescorted woman to the islands.
But Cheesman went and stayed in the South Pacific for a year. She impressed local people on the islands with her remedies of quinine and tea to treat illness, her apparent immunity to “mana” (ghosts) and her great respect for their customs and beliefs. She became the first non-local to visit the home of King Ringapat, chief of the Big Namba cannibals, and he duly presented her with a gift for King George (a spear and necklace of carved beads - highly poisonous spear underwent a rigorous cleaning by the Museum).
King Ringpat, photo by Harrisson 1936
Cheesman, taking refuge from the rain under a bark umbrella
In 1933-1938 and Cheesman travelled to Kokoda region of Papua, and the Dutch New Guinea islands of Japen and Waigeu Her field work ethics, financial aptitude and skill in entomology was now well known, and her applications for funds received strong support from the Entomology Department and the trustees.
In 1939, Cheesman was forced to return to London, as she could not support her expedition any longer. The difficulties were partly due to the unreliable mail service and shipping situations. Cheesman had also suffered greatly from malaria and insect bites.
During World War II Cheesman wrote, publishing books and scientific papers, even though she was concerned that her writings would be blitzed with the museum. As highly knowledgeable in travelling in many parts of the world, and with her rich soruce of notes and maps, Cheesman began as an official lecturer to His Majesty’s Armed Forces, speaking to members of the Royal Air Force and the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty about her work.
The port at Serui, Japen, a photo published in Cheesman 1940
Mayalibit bay, Waigeu, a photo published in Cheesman 1940
In 1948, describing her as “an extrmely capable, energetic, and courageous woman”, the Museum proclaimed Cheesman as an ‘honorary associate ‘ in recognition of her devoted work at the museum.
Shortly thereafter, at 68 years old, Cheesman once again packed her bags and set sail to New Caledonia, a region taxonomically unexplored. It was anticipated that the flora and fauna there would not only be numerous, but that many species would also be specific to the islands, so called ‘endemics’. Cheesman’s collecting efforts did not disappoint, she sent back lizards, snakes, frogs, fish, molluscs, plants, and, of course, many insects
The Red Crest, Cheesman hut on Aneityum
Some of the islands visited by Cheesman in the Pacific Ocean
Entomology after the museum - “a helluva lot to do”
Not at the end of her entomological work, Cheesman left the museum in 1952, leaving with a civil pension after a glowing recommendation from the museum director. In a statement about her, he said that she was “indomitably determined . . . overcoming the most formidable physical obstacles, undeterred by ill-health… No jungle was too impenetrable, no mountain top too inaccessible”.
Cheesman returned to Aneityum Island, the South Pacific, at age 73, very much still an ardent collector and passionate entomologist. And during the time she was away, she was bestowed The Order of the British Empire for services to entomology, a great and very much deserved recognition.
Insect species across the South Pacific differs, and their bio-geography was till unresolved. Cheesman wanted to compare the Aneityum insects with those from other South Pacific islands. She focused on the less studied groups: ants, bees, and wasps. Her work greatly improved our understanding of insect dispersal patterns and speciation, and also contributed to the museum’s collections.
Cheesman enlisted help from locals and constructed a hut for herself to stay in, the ‘Red Crest’. It had no door, and only one room, but it kept the rain out and potential insects specimens emerged from the walls. She enjoyed field work, the warm weather and didn’t mind the rain. But she missed coffee and camp life could be straining: “It makes me long for libraries, comfortable beds and restaurant meals!”
Evelyn Cheesman at 73 years of age at Aneityum Island in 1954
Cheesman’s line - a biogeographic disjunction in the Vanuatu archipelago, Hamilton et al 2010
The trip to Aneityum Island was to be her last journey out of Europe. But she did not stop travelling, a couple of years after returning form the South Pacific, Cheesmen went to Tarifa in Spain. This time she had company, a fellow collector, a botanist by the name Miss L. Digby (I have tried to find out who this women is, including her first name, but have been unsuccessful) .
Cheesman suffered a lot of physical ailments later in life, getting hit by a car, developing arthritis in her elbow and then blindness in one eye. But this did little to stop her work, because, as she state, there was “a helluva lot to do”.
Legacy
Cheesman’s exhaustive investigation and collection work in the South Pacific revealed that something was very special with the island group of Vanuatu. She suggested that the pattern she saw in species distribution across the archipelago indicated a zoogeographic line, analogous to Wallace’s line. Zoogeographic lines describe breaks in distribution of species, as can be seen on either side of Wallace’s line in South-East Asia: on the south side of the line, species are similar to Australian lineages, where only Asian species can be found on the northern side.
Cheesman argued that the floral and faunal similarity of the southern islands (Erromango, Tanna, and Aneityum) was the result of a previous land-bridge connection and suggested that the three islands were previously a single landmass with a connection to New Caledonia. Even though this hypothesis has been rejected now, as geological studies have revealed that no land-bridge existed, the zoogeographic line is reality and thought to be the produce of climate differences and dispersal patterns. It was recently named “Cheesman’s Line” (Hamilton et al 2010).
Nyctimystes cheesmani by Geordi Torr
Indolestes cheesmanae,male from New Caledonia, by Marinov et al
Cheesman choose to called herself Evelyn, even though that was her middle and not first name. Electing a name with gender ambiguity may have been intentional by her, and it also lead to some confusion in species naming. The feminine suffix of her last name should be ‘cheesmanae’, but often, species are called ‘cheesmani’, the male suffix. Touzel and Garner (2018) provide a list of some of all the 200 species named after Cheesman in their excellent article on her. These include a cockroach, several spiders, many beetles, flies, bugs, cicadas, wasps, butterflies, frogs, lizards, plants and mammals.
There are three damselflies which bear Cheesman’s name: Ischnura cheesmani, Indolestes cheesmanae (formerly Austrolestes cheesmanae).
Plants names after Cheesman include the Galápagos tomato (Solanum cheesmaniae). Charles Darwin had actually collected the first specimen of this tomato on the Galapagos, but it was Cheesman’s sample that enabled botanists to identify it as a distinct species. In her honor, it was named Solanacium cheesmaniae.
In 1969 Cheesman passed away at Whittle Park, Highwood, near Chelmsford (Essex). She was 86 years old. Shortly before then, she had made sure to donate all of her collections to the Natural History Museum. She left an enormous legacy, including more than 30 published books, several research papers and more than 70 000 specimen collected.
Solanum cheesmaniae collected by Cheesman, from Darwin et al 2003
References
Cheesman (1940) Two Unexplored Islands off Dutch New Guinea: Waigeu and Japen. The Geographical Journal, 95, No. 3, pp. 208-217. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1788404
Darwin et al (2003) Taxonomy of tomatoes in the Galápagos Islands: Native and introduced species of Solanum section Lycopersicon (Solanaceae). Systematics and Biodiversity 1(01):29 - 53, doi: 10.1017/S1477200003001026
Hamilton et al (2010) Biogeographic Breaks in Vanuatu, a Nascent Oceanic Archipelago. Pacific Science, vol. 64, no. 2:149–159 https://doi.org/10.2984/64.2.149
Harrisson TH (1936) Living with the People of Malekula. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 88, No. 2 pp. 97-124. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1785830
Touzel and Garner (2018) -“The Person Herself Is Not Interesting” Lucy Evelyn Cheesman’s Life Dedicated to the Faunistic Exploration of the Southwest Pacific”. Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/cjxa/14/4
The Telegraph (2018) “Evelyn Cheesman: the 20th century entomologist who helped to open the door for women in science” by Sameeha Shaikh, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/evelyn-cheesman-20th-centuryentomologist-helped-open-door-women/
Evelyn Cheesman - ‘the woman who walks’ by Sammy Borras for the Natural History Museum of London