Margaret McNair Stokes (March 1832 – 20 September 1900) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Illustrator, antiquarian and writer.

Life

Born in Dublin, she was the daughter of Dr William Stokes and his wife Mary (née Black). One brother,

Whitley Stokes Whitley Stokes, CSI, CIE, FBA (28 February 1830 – 13 April 1909) was an Irish lawyer and Celtic scholar. Background He was a son of William Stokes (1804–1878), and a grandson of Whitley Stokes the physician and anti-Malthusian (1763� ...

, was a leading Celticist, a second, Sir

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, followed their father into medicine and was a leading surgeon. Important figures in the field of antiquities such as artist Sir George Petrie, lawyer and poet Sir

Samuel Ferguson Sir Samuel Ferguson (10 March 1810 – 9 August 1886) was an Irish poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant. He was an acclaimed 19th-century Irish poet, and his interest in Irish mythology and early Irish history can be seen ...

, Edwin Wyndham-Quin, 3rd Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, and historians

James Henthorn Todd James Henthorn Todd (23 April 1805 – 28 June 1869) was a biblical scholar, educator, and Irish historian. He is noted for his efforts to place religious disagreements on a rational historical footing, for his advocacy of a liberal form of Prote ...

and William Reeves were frequent visitors to the Stokes family home, and this is said to have begun Margaret's interest in Irish antiquities. Her first published works were illustrations and illuminations for an 1861 edition of Ferguson's poem ''The Cromlech at Howth''; the title page conflated parts of the illuminations on two pages of the Book of Kells. Margaret was an informed and experienced editor, photographer and illustrator by the time she came to publish research under her own name. In the 1870s she edited Dunraven's ''Notes on Irish Architecture'' (3 volumes, 1875–1877) after the author's death in 1871. Her ''Early Christian Art In Ireland'' (1887, 2nd edition 1911) was well regarded, and if reviewer Oscar Wilde was unmoved by Stokes' prose, he praised her illustrations. She produced two works on early medieval Irish saints in Europe, ''Six Months in the Apennines'' (1892) and ''Three Months in The Forest of France'' (1895). Her ''High Crosses of Ireland'' was incomplete at her death. She was the first Irish woman to be elected an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1876 and of the

Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland is a learned society based in Ireland, whose aims are "to preserve, examine and illustrate all ancient monuments and memorials of the arts, manners and customs of the past, as connected with the antiquit ...

Death

She died at her home in

Howth Howth ( ; ; non, Hǫfuð) is an affluent peninsular village and outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The district as a whole occupies the greater part of the peninsula of Howth Head, which forms the northern boundary of Dublin Bay, and includes ...

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

in 1900. Her papers are possessed by

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

and the

National Gallery of Ireland The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...

holds a chalk portrait by

Walter Osborne Walter Frederick Osborne (17 June 1859 – 24 April 1903) was an Irish impressionist and Post-Impressionism landscape and portrait painter, best known for his documentary depictions of late 19th century working class life. Most of his painti ...

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Margaret 1832 births 1900 deaths Irish antiquarians Irish art historians Members of the Royal Irish Academy Artists from Dublin (city) Irish Protestants People from Howth Writers from Dublin (city)