METAMORPHOSIS
Nancy in the first grade.
Metamorphosis has been
on my mind lately,
both as a specific
scientific idea and a
broader concept. One of our second
grade teachers recently asked me if I
could help her teach metamorphosis
to her students and one thing led
to another. My first thought was to
research the work of Maria Sibylla
Merian, an artist/naturalist whose
work I became aware of years ago
on a visit to the National Museum
of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in
Washington, DC.
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717)
was one of the great female artists
of the seventeenth century. Her
work depicts a particular sensitiv-
ity toward the natural world and its
inhabitants. She was the first person
to record and illustrate the biologi-
cal process of metamorphosis—the
life cycle of a dramatically different
egg, larva, pupa, and adult found in
many insects.
In 1699, at age fifty-two, she
traveled with her daughter from
Amsterdam to the rainforests
of the Dutch colony of Surinam
in South America, more than a
century before Charles Darwin’s
expeditions. Here she spent two
years studying and recording meta-
morphosis in her insect subjects’
natural habitats. She returned to
Nancy in the adult stage.
Metamorphosis Activities
• Research Merian at
www.nmwa.org
• Look for contemporary
naturalists/artists online
and compare their work
to Merian’s.
• Research species of but-
terflies native to your
region and depict their
stages of metamorphosis
in a flip book.
Amsterdam to write and illustrate a
book about what she had observed.
Though her book inspired many
subsequent scientists, her work was
mostly forgotten during the nine-
teenth century until its reemergence
in contemporary times. In 1997,
the U.S. Postal Service issued two
botanical print stamps featuring
two illustrations by Merian selected
from more than seventy of her
engravings in the collection of the
NMWA.
My students share in Merian’s
wonder at the transformations of
nature every time they observe a
butterfly emerging from a chrysalis
in their classroom. In turn, I get to
see their own transformations. One
of the benefits of teaching art in an
elementary school for a number of
years is the opportunity to see my
students change before my eyes as
they grow up. I have taught many of
my current fifth graders since they
were in kindergarten and have been
fortunate to witness their physical,
mental, and creative transforma-
tions—rapid changes most pro-
nounced in elementary students. I
am privileged to be such a witness.
In Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla
Merian and the Secrets of Meta-
morphosis, author Kim Todd says
that metamorphosis “is a process
integral to the way we perceive
ourselves and our ability to change
our lives.” The articles this month
detail thoughtful transformations
big and small for you and your stu-
dents.
Resources
Todd, Kim. Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla
Merian and the Secrets of Meta-
morphosis. Harcourt, Inc., 2007.
Burris, Judy and Wayne Richards,
The Life Cycles of Butterflies.
Storey Publishing, 2006.
