Background
She was born in Savannah in 1806, the daughter of William Scarbrough and of Julia (Bernard) Scarbrough.
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Charlotte De Bernier Taylor
Edit ProfileEducation
She attended Madam Binze's School in New York City.
Career
She toured Europe after she was graduated.
Possessed of leisure and means, Mrs. Taylor began, in the thirties, seriously to cultivate an interest which she had early acquired in entomological studies. There were few formal opportunities for study in this field in the United States, and undoubtedly she was largely self-trained. Her writings indicate that she was widely read and possessed contemporary agricultural and zo"logical works but was not familiar with the progress of research in agricultural chemistry. In a word, she was a naturalist rather than a laboratory scientist.
Living in a society dominated by plantations she became especially interested in the insect life associated with the staple crops of the southern seaboard. She conducted patient and exact observations of the insect parasites of the cotton plant for over fifteen years before attempting to write on the subject. She employed magnifying glasses of some power but probably did not use the compound microscope. She made excellent drawings of the various parasites, though her accompanying sketches of plant forms were not so reliable.
During the fifties, she began publishing her findings in a number of American periodicals, her most important articles appearing in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. She imparted to her articles a literary charm somewhat unusual in the zo"logical literature of the period. Her understanding of the agricultural significance of entomological studies was also extraordinary in a day when agricultural writers were largely preoccupied with problems of soil exhaustion (see "Insects Belonging to the Cotton Plant, " Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June 1860). From the observation of the parasites of the cotton plant, her interests extended to the wheat parasites, and she called attention to the economic necessity for their systematic destruction (Ibid. , December 1859). A detailed study of the anatomy and natural history of the silk worm led her to predict a revival of the silk-raising industry in the United States (Ibid. , May 1860).
On the approach of the Civil War, she left Savannah for England and was thereafter cut off not only from friends but from her income as well. While on the Isle of Man in 1861, she began to write, but never completed, a work picturing life on a plantation. She is said to have suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis and died on the Isle of Man.
Achievements
Personality
Mrs. Taylor was a woman of great personal charm.
Connections
She was married to James Taylor, of the mercantile firm of Low, Taylor & Company, on April 27, 1829. They had two daughters and one son.
