ABSTRACT
Nineteenth-century contemporaries, lay and scientific, could not praise Eleanor Ormerod enough for her entomological work. Yet her popular fame and scientific renown quickly faded after her death. Twentieth-century writers have not been as easily convinced either of the worth of Ormerod's work, nor of the credibility of her claims to ‘femininity’. Twenty-three years after her death, Virginia Woolf published a short-story entitled “Miss Ormerod” in The Dial. Woolf poked fun at Ormerod's severe up-bringing and her unschooled introduction to insect life and bemoans Ormerod's selfless sacrifice of her young life to her family of origin and then of her health to entomology with little or no substantive reward. Woolf also belittled Ormerod for her inability to speak for herself without a man's support and her fear of speaking to large groups of gentlemen. This caustic story ends:
”.ld Miss Ormerod is dead,” said Mr. Drummond, opening The Times on
Saturday, July 20th, 1901.
”.ld Miss Ormerod?” asked Mrs. Drummond. 1
