Today we read the penultimate chapter of Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists (I didn’t blog about the first two chapters — Maria Sibylla Merian and Anna Botsford Comstock). This one was about Miriam Rothschild (1908-2005), a naturalist I’d never heard of. Maybe you’ll learn something from my narration too. Let’s get to it!

Miriam Rothschild grew up in a mansion in England. The grounds were meticulously cared for and there were multiple greenhouses, one for growing red grapes, one for growing green grapes, and one for growing flowers to send to the queen on her birthday. What made her home especially unusual, however, were the exotic animals that roamed the grounds, including zebras and Galapagos tortoises! Miriam’s parents and Uncle Walter traveled the world and brought back many specimens for their collections. Her father had thousands of specimens of fleas. Although Miriam’s family members inspired her love of nature, she was often lonely.

When Miriam grew up and married she lived in another grand house. She had three children and adopted three others. She wanted to spend more time with them than her parents had with her, so she often worked after they went to bed. She had decided to specialize in fleas and other parasites. She was the first to record the distance fleas can jump, which is equivalent to a person leaping over a skyscraper!

During World War II the Rothschild home was turned into a hospital. Miriam also helped change laws to make it easier for Jews to leave Europe and live in England and she housed dozens of Jewish children.

After the war the difficult times were not over. Miriam was disheartened to see that her former home was in shambles with the lawns and gardens overgrown and windows broken. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, because she realized that growing wildflowers instead of a uniform lawn made a better habitat for butterflies and other insects. She began harvesting and selling wildflower seeds to spread her message. Even in her old age Miriam continued working to make the world a better place and she continued to marvel at the intricacies of nature.

[If any of this information is not quite accurate, it’s due to my misunderstanding the chapter, so be sure to fact check!]