When I first came across their names, I had no idea who the botanist Elizabeth Carrington Morris and entomologist Margaretta Hare Morris were. I was in the middle of writing a book about urban trees when I stumbled upon the sisters’ captivating letters in the collections of male scientists.
I might have continued researching trees if it weren’t for Margaretta’s words to a fellow entomologist in one of those letters. “I have panted for the sympathy of someone who could appreciate my love of the science, and overlook my want of that learned love derived from books that are, generally speaking, out of woman’s reach,” she wrote. “The book of nature, however, has been widely spread before me, and countless hours of inexpressible happiness I have had in the study, there.” After reading this, I wanted to know more about the Morris sisters.
