Jos. D. Hooker.
In March, 1882, a paper on “Injurious Insects” was read at a meeting of the Richmond Athenæum. The hall was so crammed that the Council were crushed up on the platform. “At the close of the lecture” (Lady Hooker writes) “Miss Lydia Becker, at that time a vigorous upholder of ‘Woman’s Rights,’ rose to speak, and while praising Miss Ormerod’s able lecture, instanced her work as ‘being a proof of how much a woman could do without the help of man.’ Miss Ormerod, in her reply, thanked Miss Becker, but begged to say that she had no right to the praise accorded to her on the ground of her work being so entirely that of a lone woman, for, she said, ‘No one owes more to the help of man than myself. I have always met with the greatest kindness and most generous aid from my friends of the other sex, and without their constant encouragement my poor efforts would have had no practical result in being of benefit to my fellow men.’”
In the discussion which followed the lecture Sir Joseph Hooker “referred to the great benefit they had derived at Kew Gardens from Miss Ormerod’s researches, remarking that to her and her sister (Georgiana) they owed some of the best illustrations they had of insect ravages upon plants. He could not but allude also to the elegance and clearness of the language employed by Miss Ormerod in her paper as an illustration that scientific matters might be put in a clear and simple form, so that all might understand them.... In conclusion he thanked Miss Ormerod and her sister for their services to science.”
About 1888 an entomological “At Home” was given at Torrington House, St. Albans, when some sixty people assembled in the drawing-room and listened to a most interesting dissertation on the “Hessian Fly,” given by the hostess in a friendly and informal conversational manner.
The Farmers’ Club lecture in 1889 was felt by Miss Ormerod to be the most important and most gratifying of all similar public appearances. She prepared it with infinite care and, as the time fixed for its delivery approached, the state of nervous tension was great. Leading agriculturists were present, and a number of ladies came to make inquiries about all sorts of things, but probably the lecturer would have been equally well pleased had none of her own sex put in an appearance.
In 1882 Miss Ormerod was invited by the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education to become a member of a committee to advise in the improvement of the collections relating to Economic Entomology in the South Kensington and Bethnal Green Museums. The other members of committee were Professor Huxley, Mr. W. Thisleton Dyer, Professor J. O. Westwood, Mr. F. Orpen Bower, Professor Wrightson, and Mr. Moore—Colonel Donnelly and Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen being present officially. After serious consideration and a good deal of pressure from influential quarters, Miss Ormerod accepted the invitation and was a most useful member of committee till her withdrawal from it in April, 1886. She continued, however, to assist the supervision of the work, which went on for some time after. At the first meeting she was asked to prepare a scheme for a series of illustrations of Economic Entomology, and her suggestion of classifying injurious insects by the name of leading plant affected, and not by the Natural Orders of the creatures, was accepted. A collection of cases containing natural specimens in all stages of development, as well as accurate drawings of them, though never completed, was made, at first mainly under Professor Westwood’s direction, but later on, under Miss Ormerod’s supervision. Many of the specimens were taken from Mr. Andrew Murray’s earlier contributions.
The collection was in 1885 removed from Bethnal Green to the Western Exhibition Galleries, South Kensington Museum. The value of Miss Ormerod’s services and the esteem in which she was personally held by her associates in connection with the work of the committee, may be gathered from the subjoined letter sent to her by Professor Huxley.
March 12, 1883.
Dear Miss Ormerod,—Many thanks for the trouble you have taken. Your suggestion about utilising the figures which are not specially wanted for our purpose, for schools, seems to me excellent, and I hope you will bring it forward at our next meeting.