Paramaribo

Capital of Suriname, then the Dutch colony of Surinam. In The Girl Who Drew Butterflies Maria Merian lives there for nearly two years studying tropical insects.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies	Joyce Sidman	setting	Maria’s base in Surinam: a garden of caterpillars in a colony built on slavery, until fever sends her home.

The Girl Who Drew Butterflies — Joyce Sidman (2018)

Source: The Girl Who Drew Butterflies · Original · Readwise highlight

The white wooden houses of Paramaribo stood in orderly Dutch fashion along streets paved with crushed seashells. But the docks echoed with the cries of enslaved Africans bought, sold, and branded in the burning sun.

• Role: setting
• In the book: After two months at sea, Maria and her daughter Dorothea arrive in a sugar colony built on slavery. Maria rents a house, plants a large garden, breeds caterpillars, and learns about plants and insects from Indigenous and enslaved African women. She falls ill with fever and leaves after twenty-one months.
• Why it matters: Paramaribo is the base of the research that becomes her great book on the insects of Surinam.