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 White Lowell
Maria White was born in Watertown, Massachusetts to a middle-class, intellectual family. She was raised under a strict ascetic discipline at an Ursuline Convent which was burned by a mob in 1834.