Cora L. Scott

Love for the Arctic, its people and its plants

By Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Cora Scott- PhotoCanadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Cora L.Scott

Cora L. Scott (1930 – 2005) was a greatly respected and dedicated nurse who worked in Canada’s North.

Cora L.Scott

She was the first permanent nurse at Grise Fiord on the southern tip of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut in the late 1980s, but most of her career was spent in the Northwest Territories.

Saxifraga aizoides by Scott, Cora L.Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

She was also a talented amateur botanist and an exceptional artist.

Saxifraga aizoides by Scott, Cora L.Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

One of her favourite pastimes was collecting the local Arctic flora, preserving and documenting them, and creating watercolour renderings of these tiny flowers and plants.

Dwarf raspherry by Scott, Cora L.Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

A talented artist with a passion for capturing the delicate beauty of Arctic plants, Cora L. Scott gifted her collection of watercolours and pressed flowers to the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Her watercolours are part of the museum's Nature Art collection.

Her artwork is a wonderful legacy from this Canadian nurse and naturalist of Jamaican origin who loved the far North, its flora and its people.

Pinguicula vulgaris by Scott, Cora L.Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Pinguicula vulgaris, Common Butterwort (also known as Bog Violet)

Silene vulgaris by Scott, Cora L.Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Silene uralensis, Bladder Campion

Kalmia polifolia, bay laurel, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Astragalus alpinus, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Twin linnaea borealis, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Saxifraga oppositifolia, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Ranuculus hyperboreus, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Moss campion silene acculis, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

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Mountain sorrell oxyria digyna, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Saxifraga caespitosa, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Twin linnaea borealis, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Antennaria canoscens or Canadensis, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Huperzia arctica, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

Moss campion silene acculis, Scott, Cora L., From the collection of: Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

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Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature

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