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AYRE, Agnes Marion

Born
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, 1890
Died
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, 1940
Biography synopsis
Agnes Marion Ayre was recognized as an important botanical artist in Newfoundland. She took art lessons at Dr. Nichols' School of Art in St. John's and was active in the Women's Franchise League, a founding member of the Historical Society and the Newfoundland Art Society. It was through Mrs. Phillip Knowling who asked Ayre to paint her wildflower collection that she developed an interest in botany. When Mrs. Knowling had to abandon her collection, Ayre continued alone becoming a knowlegable, self-taught botanist. She planned to publish a five-volume work on plants of Newfoundland; however, after completing 1,000 life-sized water colour paintings she published only one volume due to financial constraints. In 1935 she published "Wild Flowers of Newfoundland," as well as other books and pamphlets on various aspects of the province, including a guide to wild flowers in 1937. After her death her remaining work consisting of some 2,440 pressed specimens of her own plus many additional samples making a total collection of 100,000 items, and 1,876 paintings and drawings were donated to Memorial University's Department of Biology and named the Agnes Marion Ayre Herbarium.
Memberships
Newfoundland Society of Art
File & Archive locations
National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
Memorial University of Newfoundland - Archives and Special Collections Division
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Writings about
Brassard. Keynote Address and Notes on Newfoundland Botanists: Contributions from the 15th Annual Meeting, St. John's, August, 1978. Waterloo, Ontario: Canadian Botanical Association, 1980
Huneault, Kristina. I'm Not Myself at All: Women, Art, and Subjectivity in Canada Montreal; Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018
Lush Gail Ruby Shirlene. Newfoundland Women Pioneering Careers in Science 1880 to 1949. St John's Newfoundland: Memorial University. MA thesis, 1999
Marian, Frances White. The Finest Kind : Voices of Newfoundland and Labrador Women. St. John's Newfoundland: Creative, 1992
Maunder, John. "Agnes Marion Ayre - Citizen Scholar." Sarracenia 21.3 (Fall 2015): 21-23
http://www.wildflowersocietynl.ca/page9/files/Sarracenia_Vol_21-3.pdf
Scott, Peter. "Agnes Marion Ayre." Sarracenia. 2: 4 (Summer 1992): 6-7
http://www.wildflowersocietynl.ca/page9/files/Sarracenia_Vol_2-4.pdf
St. John's Local Council of Women. Remarkable Women of Newfoundland and Labrador. St. John's Newfoundland: Valhalla Press, 1976

Writings by
Ayre, Agnes Marion. Newfoundland Names. St. John's, Newfoundland]: publisher not identified, 1939
Ayre, Agnes Marion. Wildflowers of Newfoundland (part 3). St. John's Newfoundland: self published., 1935
http://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/cns/id/24166
Ayre, Agnes Marion, Pickavance, Roger, & Agnes Marion Murphy. Agnes Ayre's Notebook: Recipes from Old St. John's. Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, Newfoundland: Boulder Publications, 2018

Full text pdfs of exhibition reviews
Royal Canadian Academy Annual Exhibition: (Montreal, ) "Royal Canadian Academy Show is Opened at Art Association. Portraiture Represented by Good Examples and Landscapes as Usual Predominate."  Gazette (Montreal)  .  p.12.   Full-text pdf

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