Elsie Wilkins Sexton

Arcturus Polaris by Elsie Wilkins Sexton published in The British Museum's Report on the collections of natural history made in the Antarctic regions during the voyage of the "Southern Cross."

Elsie Wilkins Sexton (née Wing, 27 April 1868 – 18 February 1959) was an English zoologist and biological illustrator.^[1]

Biography

Early life and Education

Sexton was born Alice Wilkins Wing at Truro, Cornwall on 27 April 1868. She studied at the Truro School of Art. In 1885 she and her family moved to Plymouth. Not long after moving, she met and married Louis Edwin Sexton.^[2]

Career

Louis was a friend of Dr Edgar J Allen, the director of the Marine Biological Association and its laboratory.^[3] In 1900 Sexton began providing Dr Allen with scientific illustrations for his publications on polychaete worms and other invertebrates.^[4] Her illustrations were first published in 1902, when Sexton provided 12 plates to the The British Museum's Report on the collections made during the voyage of the Southern Cross.^[2]

Although Sexton never formally trained as a zoologist in 1906 she undertook to identify and study amphipod specimens Dr Allen had collected on a field trip to the Bay of Biscay. She published her first scientific paper in 1908.^[4] She would continue to publish over 30 scientific papers until 1951.^[3] Her research into Gammarids helped clarify the complicated taxonomy of those species.^[1] Sexton's discovery of a red-eyed mutation in the species Gammarus chevreuxi led to her starting a series of genetic experiments.^[1] Her work with this species also resulted in a collaboration with Julian Huxley in 1920.^[2]

Death

Sexton's daughter Mary A. F. Sexton had died in 1951, so in 1957 Sexton moved to Sussex to be with her son Colonel F. B. W. Sexton. She died on 18 February 1959 at Alfriston, Sussex, aged 91.^[2]

Selected bibilography

• Sexton, E. W., (1908), "On the Amphipod Genus Trischizostoma.", Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Vol. 78, No. 2, 370 - 402
• Sexton, E. W., (1909), "Notes on some Amphipoda from the North Side of the Bay of Biscay. Families Pleustidie and Eusitridae.", Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Vol. 79, No. 4, 848 – 879
• Sexton, E. W., (1911), "On the Amphipod Genus Leptocheirus.", Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Vol. 8, No. 3, 561– 594

External links

• Photograph of Elsie Wilkins Sexton
• Some of Elsie Wilkins Sexton's scientific illustrations on Flickr.

References