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BACKGROUND: In 1868, Nylander described 15 new lichen taxa from collections made near Durban, South Africa. The locality was not specified and the collector was identified only as 'Miss Armstrong'. OBJECTIVES: To identify the collector and type locality of Nylander's species. METHOD: Scientific literature, maps, letters, notebooks and genealogical sources were consulted to reconstruct the provenance of the specimens. RESULTS: 'Miss Armstrong' was likely Olivia Armstrong; she collected in the Karkloof area of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. CONCLUSION: This investigation facilitates future work to determine whether the species described and reported by Nylander are still extant in the same locality.