Berthe Hoola van Nooten

 (Utrecht 1817 - Batavia 1892) 

Berthe is a Dutch noted botanical artist. In 1838 she married Dirk Hoola van Nooten, who became a judge in Paramaribo, the capital of Surinam and the first Dutch settlement in South America.

Interested in botany, she regularly sent specimens of cultivated plants to botanical gardens in the Netherlands, collected on trips through Suriname with her husband.

Later on the couple moved to New Orleans where they established a school. Unfortunately her husband died of yellow fever - leaving her with a young family of five. After his death, she moved in 1856 to her brother in Batavia (Jakarta), providing education to children in what was then called the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). 

At this time she started the illustrations which became the botanical work known as "Fleurs, Fruits et Feuillages Choisis de L'Ile de Java, Peints d'après Nature" published in Brussels in 1863. 

Somehow she has acquired the patronage of Queen Sophia, wife of King William III of the Netherlands, and the book is dedicated to her.

Berthe is seen as the first woman who became a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW)

Source: Allard Pierson Museum Amsterdam