The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s newest exhibit, Drawn by a Lady: Early Women Illustrators, celebrates the talent of artists and authors in 19th century Victorian England who were disregarded because of their gender.

The exhibit runs March 10 through July 2, and is included in museum admission. Museum members are always admitted free.

More than 40 works of early botanical illustration are on view profiling the lives of eight women who defied convention in an era when it was socially unacceptable for them to earn a living.

Denied access to formal education, they used their skills in drawing and painting to make meaningful contributions to the emerging field of botany.

The women wrote and illustrated books, sometimes published anonymously, using their husband’s name, or credited simply, ”By a Lady.”

“Drawn by a Lady provides a fascinating look at gender issues in the history of science,” said Maximus Gallery curator Linda Miller. “For Victorian women, illustrating and writing about plants could be a means to both support themselves and to shape botanical knowledge.”

More information is at sbnature.org/drawn.