Maud D. Haviland

Maud Doria Brindley née Haviland (10 February 1889 – 3 April 1941) was an English ornithologist, entomologist, explorer, lecturer, photographer and writer. She conducted studies on bugs and also examined bird biology while at Cambridge and on her travels in Siberia, central Europe, and South America.

Early life

Haviland was born in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Her great-grandfather, John Haviland, was a Professor of Anatomy and the first Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Cambridge to give regular courses in pathology and medicine. She spent her youth growing on the estate of her step-father in south-east Ireland where she shot and observed birds in the wild. She learned anatomy and dissection from books. Her earliest natural history books were Wild Life on the Wing (1913) and The Wood People and Others (1914). She also wrote books for children.

Siberian expedition

In 1914 she joined Polish anthropologist Maria Czaplicka on an expedition to Siberia along the Yenesei. Other members of the group included painter Dora Curtis and Henry Usher Hall of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. They travelled overland to Krasnoyarsk, took the trans-Siberian railway and went down the Yenesei in a steamer. En route she was able to observe several are waders and their nests. They returned by the Kara Sea. Returning from the trip she wrote her most popular work, A Summer on the Yenesei. Her work was inspired by Henry Seebohm and his journey in 1877 which was published in Siberia in Asia as well as Notes of birds observed on the Yenesei River, Siberia (1895) by H.L. Popham (1864–1943).