Maria Sibylla Merian
Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 164713 January 1717) was a German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator, a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Merian family. Merian was one of the first naturalists to observe insects directly.
Maria Taylor Beale
She was born Maria Taylor in Richmond, Virginia, in 1894, and studied art in Paris. She married Charles Willing Beale, who was also an author, on January 25, 1872, and lived in Arden, North Carolina (which they helped found and which her husband named after the woods in William Shakespeare's "As You Like It"). She died in Arden on January 21, 1929, and is buried with her husband at Calvary Episcopal Church Cemetery in Fletcher, North Carolina.