Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian trained as a flower painter and engraver in Frankfurt and paid for her own research trip to Suriname in 1699 with her daughter. Her Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname (1705) showed insects through their life cycles on their food plants, evidence against the idea that insects arose spontaneously from mud. Naturalists valued the observations; collectors valued the plates as art. Both audiences still do.