CHARLOTTE deBERNIER SCARBROUGH
TAYLOR1806-1861GEORGIA'S FIRST WOMAN
ENTOMOLOGISTCharlotte Scarbrough Taylor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the daughter of William Scarbrough and of Julia Bernard Scarbrough. Her Father, a wealthy shipping merchant, was a financial backer of the pioneer transatlantic steamship Savannah. Her family divided their time between a handsome regency townhouse built by the English architect John Jay (today the Ships of The Sea Museum in Savannah), and Belfast, a 7,000 acre plantation across the Savannah River in South Carolina.
Robert Mackay(1772-1816), a prominent Savannah merchant, and Charlotte's Godfather, commented about her: "Charlotte is the most perfect little beauty I ever saw, and I cannot imagine how they manage to keep her always in full dress, and her hair exactly as if she was from under the hairdresser's hands; she is grown very tall and her shape is elegance itself."
Little is known about her early years except that in 1818 at the age of 13, Charlotte's father helped found the Savannah Steam Ship Company. As president of the firm, he entertained President James Monroe in his home and escorted him on a trip aboard the Savannah down the Savannah River. Monroe was so impressed by the vessel he is said to have promised the ship would be acquired as a cruiser by the United States Navy if the Savannah sucessfully sailed under steam to Liverpool and St.Petersburg.
The ship operated successfully, but did not carry sufficient cargo to make the voyage profitable. Scarbrough was held responsible for the steamship's $100,000 debts and declared bankruptcy in 1820 just as a yellow fever epidemic swept Savannah.
Charlotte in the meantime was sent to New York City where she attended Madame Binze's School. After graduation she toured Europe and then returned to Savannah. Against her better judgment, she was persuaded to marry James Taylor on April 27, 1829, at her parent's home. Taylor was a Scottish immigrant and partner in the cotton factoring firm of Taylor and Low. The couple had three children, the first two of whom were born in Savannah, before the family moved to New York City and later on to New Brunswick, New Jersey. Within a decade James Taylor declared bankruptcy.
Charlotte returned to Savannah with her children in 1843, remaining at the Scarbrough house until 1851 when she moved back North. After her return she bagan to study cotton plant parasites in search of the chrysalis in cotton plants. She studied cotton balls daily at dawn and dusk for three summers. It appears that her longstanding interest in entomology may have begun in her twenties when she observed a mite-infested Savannah garden.
During the years she lived and travelled in Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and Canada, she collected specimens, and friends sent her rare examples from California and West Indies. Her writings indicate a wide acquaintance with contemporary agricultural and zoological works, including John Abbot's 2 volume History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia (1797), and Thomas Say's landmark work, American Entomology(1824).
Mrs.Taylor was a naturalist - not a laboratory scientist - interested in the insect lofe associated with plantations. Over a 15-year period she conducted exact observations of insect parasites of the cotton plant using as her only tool magnifying glasses to make drawings of some parasites. She began her publishing career in 1853-54 with some contributions to the School Fellow, a juvenile magazine. financial difficulties may have prompted her to sell articles and drawings to the American Agriculturalist and Harper's New Monthly Magazine. her subjects ranged from observations of the parasites of the cotton plant to wheat parasites and the anatomy and natural history of a detailed study of the silk worm led her to predict a revival of the silk-raising industry in the United States.
On the approach of the Civil War, Mrs.Taylor left Savannah for England, and while on the Isle of Man in 1861 she began to write "Scenes from Plantation Life" as well as an illustrated romance, "The Fair Maid of Peel," before her death later that year.
Mrs.Taylor's manuscripts did not survive, but her specimen Book for 1859 (which appeared as two workbooks) were inherited by her daughter, Mrs.Virginia Taylor Trabue, wife of Colonel Isaac Trabue, founder of Punta Gorda. Mrs. Trabue gave the two workbooks to Mr. and Mrs. John McCann who presented them to the Punta Gorda public Library. The Punta Gorda Garden Club in 1975 undertook the restoration and preservation of the notebooks which were presented to the Punta Gorda Public Library. The images on exhibit were produced from slides made of each of the paintings in the workbook so their beauty can be enjoyed by others interested in her work.
Belfast Plantation(Allendale County, South Carolina) |
 William
Scarbrough House41 West Broad Street, Savannah, Georgia (Ships of The Sea Maritime Museum) |