Mary Maytham Kidd born Mary Catherine Maytham (24 January 1914 – 8 April 2001 East London, Cape Province), daughter of Albert Archibald Maytham, was a South African botanical artist. Born in

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

, she was educated at Roedean School in Johannesburg between 1927 and 1930 and, between 1931 and 1933, studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. She also trained at the Royal Academy School in London from 1936 to 1938. Kidd wrote and illustrated ''"Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula"'' (Cape Town 1950 - foreword by

J. C. Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South A ...

), two books on South African poisonous and edible fungi by Edith L. Stephens (Longmans, Cape Town 1953) and illustrated a series of booklets on protected wild flowers for the Cape Province Nature Conservation Department. Her 1950 work, ''"Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula"'', was recently republished as ''"Wild Flowers of the Table Mountain National Park"'', by the ''Botanical Society of South Africa''. She also created designs for porcelain, Christmas cards and calendars. The

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

archives acquired her sketchbooks, diaries and other documents after her death. They show that she undertook a 1936 canoe trip down the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

and visited Nyasaland and the Zomba Plateau in 1943. Much later in 1973/74, she spent some time in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. She married Hubert John Kidd (1896-1963), headmaster of the Diocesan College of Bishops in Rondebosch, on 28 May 1948. They adopted a child, Charles James Anthony Kidd (1942-2005). Mary died of congestive cardiac failure on 8 April 2001 in

Maitland, Cape Town Maitland is a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. Maitland is situated along a number of important transport networks connecting the Cape Town city bowl to the rest of the city. The most important being the railway line that runs through the mi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kidd, Mary Maytham 1914 births 2001 deaths Alumni of Roedean School, South Africa University of Paris alumni White South African people Botanical illustrators 20th-century South African painters