A little history on Beatrix Potter that you might not have known...

I learned this tidbit of information from my boss in my research laboratory in Oklahoma. Beatrix Potter was originally a scientist who studied lichen. Her drawings of lichen and fungi are some of the most beautiful scientific drawings ever created. She was a brilliant scientist and was rumored to have actually discovered the true nature of lichen - that it was a symbiotic life form created from a mutualistic relationship between a fungi and a algae. This was a huge discovery for the scientific world, but she is often denied credit for her discovery. Why? Because she was a woman. The scientific community at that time was not ready to accept that women could make discoveries equally impressive as those made by men.

It was after she was repeatedly scorned and denied credit that she began writing and illustrating children's books. While she became one of the foremost children's literature writers/illustrators, it was a great loss to the scientific community when she left science forever.

The above is an illustration of fungi drawn by Beatrix Potter.