In 1699, botany artist Maria Sibylla Merian, then 52, set sail to Dutch Suriname in South America with her 21-year-old daughter, Dorothea, to study insects. The two-month journey, through pirate-laden seas, would be an adventure for anyone, but especially daring, at the time, for two women.

Her detailed illustrations of wildlife derived through direct observation served as a foundation for entomology. Not only do her beautiful depictions of plants and bugs continue to influence naturalist illustrators (as well as her independent spirit and status in a field that continues to be denominated by men), but they also serve as one of the inspirations for the bottle and label design of distiller Marthe Bøhn’s latest spirit, the cask-aged aquavit Gullmunn Spritfabrikk.