'The German naturalist Amalie Dietrich lived and researched in Australia between 1861 and 1873. When Ray Sumner first began her research into the work of Dietrich in the early 1980s, Dietrich's name was not well known in Australia. Sumner became increasingly fascinated by this quite remarkable woman and, following from her doctoral thesis, Amalie Dietrich in Australia (1985), she wrote a series of articles which examined Dietrich's botanical and zoological collections and another on her collection of early photographs of Queensland Aborigines. In a subsequent paper, Sumner focused on Amalie Dietrich's role in both Australian scientific history and in Australian-German relations, coming to the conclusion that, despite her considerable contribution, Dietrich still remained a virtually unknown figure in this country.' (Introduction)
