AUTHOR
Catherine Booth
I have always enjoyed finding out – which is why I became a librarian. I have now retired from that job, but I still think of myself as a detective trying to find information – often in libraries, but also on the Internet. Just now I am concentrating on the lives and work of Scottish female scientists from the past, whose names are simply not known, and they deserve to be. There are some great stories about lots of these women, and I love telling them. Isabella Gordon is a super example, and I am delighted that Isabella’s home town of Keith is celebrating her!
Isabella’s Footsteps is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with special thanks to National Lottery players. Funding has also been provided by The Gordon & Ena Baxter Foundation and The Scottish Fishermen’s Trust.
SCIENTIST
Miranda Lowe CBE
I started out at the Natural History Museum as an Assistant Scientific Officer, much like Isabella. Now, 30 years later as a Principal Curator and museum scientist I still enjoy investigating marine biology, natural history and caring for a huge collection of really important marine specimens which include Darwin’s barnacles and corals and the many ‘Type Specimens’ of Isabella Gordon – new species -, with the tops of the specimen jars painted in red – the name bearing specimens.
I am really doing the same job Isabella did many years ago: – spending time in different places collecting things like crabs – learning to hold them from the back otherwise they will nip you! But the bulk of the work is in my museum lab using my microscope to identify crustacea, some new to science. Sometimes I use the same tools she used like her micrometer or eye piece graticule (see below) which is a piece of glass 1cm squared with grid lines that she used to pop into the eyepiece of her microscope to aid the measurements and drawing of her specimens.
We have both received honours at Buckingham Palace – Isabella received an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II and I received a CBE from Prince William. Isabella knew many important people and was a celebrity in Japan. I’ve been lucky enough to appear on the BBC and to have met and worked with Sir David Attenborough.
ILLUSTRATOR
Alexa Rutherford
I studied Illustration at Art College. After a brief spell in a design studio I left to become a freelance illustrator when I had children as I could work from home.
I have illustrated many children’s books and magazines in UK and America. I was delighted to be asked to work on this story of Isabella Gordon .
As an illustrator you have to understand the story, research the time it is set in – checking what people wore and the things people used at that time. For Isabella’s Footsteps I had to study pictures of the crustacea that Miranda wanted me to add to each picture.
I started by making pencil sketches of each scene – like this lobster beside a creel.
Once everyone else in the team was happy with each sketch and that the species looked right, I finished the art in colour using watercolour paints.
