Nancy Adams
Jacqueline Nancy Mary Adams was a New Zealand botanist, botanical artist, and museum curator.
Born in Levin in 1926, Adams attended Wellington Girls' College and Victoria University College, studying zoology and botany. At 16 she joined the Botany Division of New Zealand's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. She worked there until 1959, when she was appointed to the Dominion Museum as assistant Curator of Botany with a special responsibility for algae. 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 Zealand botanist, for whom Adams drew Thallus of Marchasta bearing archegoniophres. She received international recognition for her detailed and delicate algal illustrations. Awards included the Loder Cup in 1964, and the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. 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.
