Nora Barlow

Emma Nora Barlow, Lady Barlow (née Darwin; 22 December 1885 – December 1989), was the granddaughter of the British naturalist Charles Darwin. As a young lady, she studied genetics under William Bateson, married and had children. In later life she was one of the first Darwinian scholars, and founder of the Darwin Industry of scholarly research into her grandfather's life and discoveries.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Biography

Early life

Nora, as she was known, was the daughter of the civil engineer Sir Horace Darwin and his wife The Hon. Lady Ida Darwin (née Farrer), daughter of Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer. Her elder brother Erasmus was killed during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915;^[4] She also had a sister, Ruth Darwin.

She worked as a research assistant at the John Innes Institute from 1905, and studied plant genetics under William Bateson at Cambridge in 1906,^[5] then the centre for what was pioneering genetics research, and was an active member of the Cambridge University Genetics Society. She published two plant genetics papers in 1913^[6] and 1923^[7] which drew on her Grandfather's The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species.

Marriage and motherhood

In 1911 she married Alan Barlow, son of the Royal Physician Sir Thomas Barlow.^[8] They had six children:

• Joan Helen Barlow (26 May 1912 – 21 February 1954)
• Sir Thomas Erasmus Barlow, 3rd Baronet. (23 January 1914 – 12 October 2003), naval officer.
• Erasmus Darwin Barlow (15 April 1915 – 2 August 2005)
• Andrew Dalmahoy Barlow (16 September 1916 – 2006)
• Hilda Horatia Barlow (b. 14 September 1919) married psychoanalyst John Hunter Padel; their daughter is the poet Ruth Padel.
• Horace Basil Barlow (b. 8 December 1921)

Additionally, she temporarily cared for her cousin Gwen Raverat's daughters Elisabeth and Sophie during Gwen's breakdown after the death of her husband Jacques Raverat.^[9] She became known as Lady Barlow after her husband was first knighted in 1938.

She was widowed in 1968. Cambridge University Library has a painting of her in old age by her daughter-in-law Yvonne Barlow^[10]

Darwin's editor

Her first book as editor was a new edition of The Voyage of the Beagle (1933).

She published an unexpurgated version of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, which had previously had personal and religious material removed by his son, Francis. She also edited several collections of letters and notes, including correspondence between Darwin and John Stevens Henslow, his mentor.

Legacy

The Columbine flower cultivar Aquilegia "Nora Barlow" is named after Barlow.

Aquilegia "Nora Barlow"

In fiction

Nora Barlow appears as a supporting character in Scott Westerfeld's 2009 young-adult steampunk novel Leviathan. In Westerfeld's alternate history, Barlow is a prominent genetic engineer and diplomat.

Bibliography

• 1933. Charles Darwin's Diary of the Voyage of HMS Beagle, editor.
• 1946. Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle, editor. (A collection of letters and notebooks from the voyage.)
• 1958. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–1882, editor.
• 1963. Darwin's Ornithological Notes, editor. (Barlow also wrote the Introduction, Notes, and Appendix.)
• 1967. Darwin and Henslow: The Growth of an Idea. Letters, 1831–1860, editor.

References

External links

• http://www.advancingwomen.com/awl/fall2005/19_6.html