'Free, Bold, Joyous': The Love of Seaweed in Margaret Gatty and Other Mid-Victorian Writers

Abstract

With particular reference to Gatty's British Sea-Weeds and Eliot's 'Recollections of Ilfracombe', this article takes an ecocritical approach to popular writings about seaweed, thus illustrating the broader perception of the natural world in mid-Victorian literature. This is a discursive exploration of the way that the enthusiasm for seaweed reveals prevailing ideas about propriety, philanthropy and natural theology during the Victorian era, incorporating social history, gender issues and natural history in an interdisciplinary manner. Although unchaperoned wandering upon remote shorelines remained a questionable activity for women, 'seaweeding' made for a direct aesthetic engagement with the specificity of place in a way that conforms to Barbara Gates's notion of the 'Victorian female sublime'. Furthermore, while women's contributions often received an uneven reception within the masculine institutions of professional science, marine botany proved to be a more accommodating area for participation. At Ilfracombe, Eliot wrote that she believed collecting and naming was a means to achieve distinct and definite ideas in her understanding of the world. The argument is developed that many needed to reorient their personal cosmologies in order to make sense of, and impose meaning upon, an uncertain world, thus contributing to the great debate about evolution.

Algae in the Human World: Beauty and Taste Come First

“…The term 'cryptogamists' in the poem derives from Cryptogamia that refers to an archaic botanical classification system. Hunt (2005) has analysed popular writings from the mid-Victorian literature in England about seaweeds and how they reveal contemporary ideas about property, philanthropy, and natural theology, including such issues as social history, gender, and natural history. One of his findings is that this kind of 'seaweeding' was predominantly a women's activity and mainly based on aesthetic engagement.…”

Seaweed Fabrics for Fashion Design. A Field Research Experience

“…Actually, interest in seaweed was not born in the 21st century, but the first studies on the properties and potential of seaweed in manufacturing, including textiles, appeared in the second half of the 19th century, although they did not subsequently find significant development and application [10]. Commenting on the words of writer Margaret Gatty, author in 1863 of British Sea-Weeds, ecocriticism researcher Stephen E. Hunt observes that this fusion of sea and nature simultaneously creates a sense of familiarity and estrangement in the midst of other creatures [11,20,21]. Hunt's reflection helps to understand the motivations behind the current diffusion of seaweed-based materials in fashion and other design disciplines, which do not seem to be exclusively traceable to the search for innovative and sustainable materials.…”

Collaboration, Gender, and Leadership at the Minnesota Seaside Station, 1901–1907

“…As Ann Shteir and others pointed out, the accessibility of such studies in girls’ academies in the early nineteenth century and subsequent opportunities to practice botany as illustrators and writers meant there were more women in botany than any other science. British historians observed that the availability of algae at summer recreational locations encouraged women to develop a special interest in seaside studies (Shteir 1996 ; Hunt 2005 ). Nonetheless, as Shteir, Margaret Rossiter, and others report, by the late nineteenth century there was pushback to women’s changing aspirations in botany that limited their access to resources and academic positions (Rossiter 1982 ; Chambers 2002 ; Tonn 2017 ).…”