Nancy Adams

Jacqueline Nancy Mary Adams (19 May 1926 – 27 March 2007) was a New Zealand botanical illustrator, botanical collector, phycologist and museum curator. Throughout her career (1943–1987), she worked at DSIR and later at the Dominion Museum in different roles as technician, artist and assistant curator of botany. Largely self-taught, Adams collected over 3300 botanical specimens in New Zealand, illustrated nearly forty publications on algae and other native plants, and authored numerous scientific publications. Her major work, Seaweeds of New Zealand – An Illustrated Guide, was published in 1994.

Early life Nancy Adams was born in Levin on 19 May 1926, the daughter of Jessie Whittaker and her husband, Kenneth Ernest Adams (grandson of early amateur botanist James Adams).

Adams' parents separated while she was still young and she grew up in Wellington with her maternal grandparents, the proprietors of the Whittaker's chocolate company.

Career Adams joined the Botany Division of New Zealand's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in Wellington as a technician in 1943 when she was 16 years old. Adams also assisted Moore with another study of the reproductive biology of the brown alga Halopteris. Although she was not listed as a co-author on the resulting 1946 publication in Nature, Adams played a critical role in that research project by "examining hundreds of specimens and determining their reproductive characters." Adams was the DSIR Botany Division's botanical illustrator from 1950 to 1959, working on a wide variety of projects and plant groups, including algae, mosses, and flowering plants. Working alongside Curator Patrick Brownsey and technician Fiona Pitt, Adams was instrumental in both growing the botany collection at the museum as well as registering, organising, mounting and curating it.

She retired from her position at the museum in 1987 but continued to be an Honorary Research Associate of the Museum.

Adams was a prolific artist, illustrating nearly forty publications on native plants, alpine life, trees and shrubs. Included in these publications is an article written by Ella Orr Campbell, a fellow New Zealander, for whom Adams drew Thallus of Marchasta bearing archegoniophores. She received international recognition for her detailed and delicate algal illustrations.

Awards and honours Awards included the Loder Cup in 1964 related to her publications for the National Parks She was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services in the 1989 New Year Honours, and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to botany, in the 1996 New Year Honours. In 1994, she received an award for her work Seaweeds of New Zealand: An Illustrated Guide, which held a description of 600 different plant species and illustrating 441. She is a Royal Society Te Apārangi 150 women in 150 words laureate.

Eponymy The following two genera and four species of algae have been named after Nancy Adams:

Adamsiella – a genus of red algae Nancythalia - a genus of red algae Lessonia adamsiae – a species of brown algae Lysithea adamsiae – a species of red algae Phycodrys adamsiae – a species of red algae Polysiphonia adamsiae – a species of red algae

List of species named by Nancy Adams

Source:

Antithamnionella adnata (J.Agardh) N.M.Adams Callophyllis angustifrons (Hook.f. & Harv.) South & N.M.Adams Erythrotrichia foliiformis South & N.M.Adams Nesophila hoggardii W.A.Nelson & N.M.Adams Plocamium microcladioides South & N.M.Adams Polysiphonia pernacola N.M.Adams Gigartina dilatata (Hook.f. & Harv.) N.M.Adams Chlidophyllon kaspar (W.A.Nelson & N.M.Adams) W.A.Nelson Halopteris virgata (Hook.f. & Harv.) N.M.Adams Streblocladia muelleriana (J.Agardh) L.E.Phillips, Hommers., N.M.Adams & W.A.Nelson

Death Nancy Adams died on 27 March 2007 in Karori, Wellington, New Zealand. She was 80 years old.

Gallery of botanical illustrations by Nancy Adams