20th century scientists
Kathleen Maisey Curtis & Theodore Rigg
The Cawthron Institute staff in 1932. Kathleen Curtis is seated in the second row. Theodore Rigg is next to Curtis, third from left, Courtesy of Cawthron Institute
Kathleen Maisey Curtis & Theodore Rigg
It is indeed remarkable evidence of Dr Curtis's pre-eminence in mycology that back in 1920 a woman was one of the pioneer researchers in this field.
From Curtis’s obituary by Esther Mary Penhale in Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 1991-95
Rigg’s leadership, foresight, his field and laboratory work, and his capacity as an organiser, played a most important part in eliminating this very serious deficient disease from the New Zealand pastoral farming scene, enabling thousands of acres of 'sick' soils to come into production.
Frank Callaghan credits Rigg for his work on the animal wasting disease known as bush sickness. From Helen R Hughes, A Quaker Scientist, Beechtree Press, 2005, pp78-79
When next you bite into a blemish-free apple, think of Kathleen Curtis.
The mycologist’s experiments at the Cawthron Institute, a private research institution in Nelson, found that the fungi that cause black spot reside in the dead leaves of infected trees. Her experiments showed that spraying the leaves was the most effective method of controlling the discharge of spores. The institute established a warning system to let growers know when to spray, allowing them to better control the disease and boosting production.
Curtis became the first woman appointed to a research position in New Zealand when she was appointed mycologist at the Cawthron Institute in 1920. A year earlier, she had been awarded her DSc, the first ever gained by a New Zealand woman. Her thesis, on wart disease in potatoes, was considered the most outstanding in mycological research for a decade. In 1936, Curtis became the first female Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Curtis lived with her mother, a domineering woman who refused to allow Curtis to exchange her spectacles when her eyes weakened. Rather than go against her mother’s wishes, Curtis put up with poor eyesight all her working life. In her spare time, Curtis often took walks in the hills, hunting out native fungi. A new genus of phalloids (a truffle-like fungus) she found was named Claustula fischeri curtis.
In the same year Curtis joined the Cawthron, Theodore Rigg was appointed the institute’s agricultural chemist. Rigg too worked on apples, his research helping boost yields. In 1934, growers presented Lord Rutherford with the millionth case of Nelson apples.
Rigg was also instrumental in ridding New Zealand of bush sickness, an animal wasting disease caused by cobalt deficiency in soils. In 1938, Rigg and his colleagues showed that adding cobalt salts to fertilisers would prevent bush sickness. Topdressing paddocks with cobalt salts eliminated the disease within five years.
Rigg, a Quaker, had two children by his American wife, Esther White. His daughter, Helen Hughes, recalls accompanying her father to take meteorological readings on public holidays, a fun activity unless it was Christmas Day when ‘the family could not gather to open all those presents under the Christmas tree until we returned home after taking the 9am meteorological readings’.
Rigg became director of the Cawthron Institute in 1933 and, in 1938, he was knighted. Rigg was widowed in 1959 and in 1966, when Rigg was 78 and Curtis 74, the two scientists wed. During their working lives, a friend recalled, they were often at loggerheads. During their marriage, they travelled widely – when they could agree on destinations.
By Kim Griggs
Medals and awards
Kathleen Curtis: First New Zealand woman awarded a DSc 1919, First female FRSNZ 1936, FLS
Theodore Rigg: FNZI 1932, KBE 1938
Further reading
Kathleen Curtis biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website
Theodore Rigg biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website
Curtis's article 'A Die-back of Pinus radiata and P. muricata caused by the Fungus Botryodiplodia pinea (Desm.) Petr', published in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, is available online:
Kathleen Curtis article – Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand website
Rigg's article 'Montan Wax' published in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, is available online:
Theodore Rigg article – Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand website
Helen R Hughes, A Quaker Scientist: the life of Theodore Rigg, Beechtree Press, 2005
Image courtesy of Cawthron Institute
