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Jill Adams (29 October 1932 - 28 July 2016) was a South African artist who has specialised in natural history illustrations. She was born in Durban in 1932, but lived for part of her life in Kimberley, where, on the staff of the McGregor Museum, she worked in close association with leading biologist, Dr Richard Liversidge. Adams died on 28 July 2016 in Somerset West. [1]
Adams worked from 1974 to 1983 in the art department at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley. During this period she published her illustrated Flowering Plants of the Northern Cape (1976)
She subsequently achieved public renown for her paintings of Aloes.
Adams subsequently collaborated with ornithologist Richard Liversidge making their book, The birds around us: birds of the Southern African region (1990). Liversidge points out in a note "To the reader" that "this is certainly the first book on Southern African birds which has attempted to illustrate all the more common species in flight. Often a bird in flight is all that you will see." [2] This work resulted in new observations being made with respect the Hoopoe where male and female have different flight patterns, with indications that a reclassification might need to be made for Hoopoes into "more than their present number of species." [3]
The illustrations produced for The birds around us have been described as "the product of her outstanding draughtsmanship, coupled with a keen sense of observation and knowledge of the "natural pose" of birds." In order to keep the collection in the Northern Cape, the original paintings were purchased by the Gant family and donated to the McGregor Museum in 1991. [1]
Earlier, in 1983, Adams was commissioned by Heritage Porcelain to contribute to a series of six plates in a Collectors' edition, Best loved birds of Southern Africa to mark the centenary of the birth of Austin Roberts, South African ornithologist (1883–1948). The series includes the Cape Robin, Cossyphya caffra .
Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Anglo-Boer war. British businessmen Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes in Kimberley, and Rhodes established the De Beers diamond company in the early days of the mining town.
Austin Roberts was a South African zoologist. He is best known for his Birds of South Africa, first published in 1940. He also studied the mammalian fauna of the region: his work The mammals of South Africa was published posthumously in 1951. The 7th edition of Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa which appeared in 2005, is the standard work on the region's birds.
The yellow-billed oxpecker is a passerine bird in the family Buphagidae. It was previously placed in the starling and myna family, Sturnidae.
The hoopoe starling, also known as the Réunion starling or Bourbon crested starling, is a species of starling that lived on the Mascarene island of Réunion and became extinct in the 1850s. Its closest relatives were the also-extinct Rodrigues starling and Mauritius starling from nearby islands, and the three apparently originated in south-east Asia. The bird was first mentioned during the 17th century and was long thought to be related to the hoopoe, from which its name is derived. Some affinities have been proposed, but it was confirmed as a starling in a DNA study.
The McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, originally known as the Alexander McGregor Memorial Museum, is a multidisciplinary museum which serves Kimberley and the Northern Cape, established in 1907.
The red-faced mousebird is a species of mousebird or coly. It is a common in southern Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Tanzania south to the Cape. Its habitat is savanna with thickets, fynbos scrub, other open woodland, gardens and orchards.
The cut-throat finch is a common species of estrildid finch found throughout Africa; it is also known as the bearded finch, the ribbon finch, the cut throat, and the weaver finch.
Claude Gibney Finch-Davies was a British soldier, ornithologist and painter who produced a series of paintings of birds of South Africa in the early part of the 20th century.
The white-throated canary is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae.
Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre is a rock engraving site with visitor centre on land owned by the !Xun and Khwe San situated about 16 km from Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa. It is a declared Provincial Heritage Site managed by the Northern Cape Rock Art Trust in association with the McGregor Museum. The engravings exemplify one of the forms often referred to as ‘Bushman rock art' – or Khoe-San rock art – with the rock paintings of the Drakensberg, Cederberg and other regions of South Africa being generally better known occurrences. Differing in technique, the engravings have many features in common with rock paintings. A greater emphasis on large mammals such as elephant, rhino and hippo, in addition to eland, and an often reduced concern with depicting the human form set the engravings apart from the paintings of the sub-continent.
Maria Wilman was a South African geologist and botanist. She was the first Director of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa and the second female South African to attend the University of Cambridge in England.
Richard Liversidge, naturalist, ornithologist and museum director, was born on 17 September 1926 in Blantyre, Nyasaland, and died on 15 September 2003 in Kimberley, South Africa.
Elizabeth Anne Voigt was director of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, and, as an archaeozoologist, served a term as president of the South African Archaeological Society. In retirement, Voigt was appointed a research associate of the McGregor Museum. She was born in Cape Town on 26 April 1944 and died on 7 April 2010 in Kimberley.
This is a list of the famous and notable people from Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa.
Our South African Birds is an album of South African birds published in 1941. Printed in English and Afrikaans, it was issued with spaces for 150 cigarette cards distributed by a consortium of tobacco companies.
The African hoopoe is a species of hoopoe in the family Upupidae. Previously considered as a subspecies of the Eurasian hoopoe, it is a resident species of southern Africa.
The Eurasian hoopoe is the most widespread species of the genus Upupa. It is a distinctive cinnamon coloured bird with black and white wings, a tall erectile crest, a broad white band across a black tail, and a long narrow downcurved bill. Its call is a soft "oop-oop-oop".
Katrina van Grouw is a British science author, illustrator, and fine artist, best known for her illustrated natural science books The Unfeathered Bird and Unnatural Selection published by Princeton University Press. She has degrees in Fine Art and Natural History Illustration. Van Grouw is a self-taught ornithologist with an interest in comparative anatomy, evolution, and the history of the natural sciences.
Julie Zickefoose is an American nature book writer, biologist, bird artist, and blogger.
Constance Georgina Adams, also known as Constance Georgina Tardrew, was a South African housewife and collector of botanical specimens. Known by the nicknames Connie and Daisy, Adams was born in Cape Town and spent her early childhood on a farm in Tulbagh before moving to Warrenton. She subsequently lived in Kimberley before getting married, settling in Johannesburg where she became active in the Housewives League of South Africa. Inspired by her parents' interest in botany, she became a successful collector for both the Albany Museum in Grahamstown and McGregor Museum in Kimberley. She also cultivated a friendship with the Director of the latter, Maria Wilman. She collected over 240 specimens, which were presented to the Albany Museum, McGregor Museum and the National Herbarium in Pretoria.