Mary Anning 1799-1847
I first discovered Mary Anning on a trip to the Natural History Museum. Surrounded by large scale installations of bones and rock formations, there was a diminutive portrait of her on the wall, posing with her dog and her fossil sack. I had to research her further and on reading of her life, imagined it as some amazing Hollywood script (If Harvey Weinstein is reading this, I am happy to have a crack at it), but for now she will have to settle for a humble little blog spot. I do urge you to read up more on her though (or wait for my movie) ... her story has everything, dinosaurs, adventure, a miracle, a sea dragon, a rise from poverty, tragedy, cute pets, passion and even laudanum. Sigh.
Mary Anning has been credited as being one of the greatest fossil hunters ever known, yet due to her status as a working-class woman, never achieved the academic status she deserved. Mary was born in 1799 in Lyme Regis to a cabinetmaker and his wife and was one of ten children! Her intellect and curiosity as a child became part of local legend, and was attributed to an incident that happened in her infancy when she survived being struck by lightening. Miracle or not, Mary grew to be passionately curious and educated herself by reading newly published articles on geology.
As a young woman Mary would go out along the cliffs of Lyme Regis and collect ‘curiosities’ to sell to tourists. It was dangerous work, and she nearly lost her life in 1833 during a landslide that killed her beloved dog, Tray. Soon her discoveries were attracting more than just tourists - geologists and palaeontologists were flocking to see her for samples. She is known to have found the first ichthyosaur skeleton to be correctly identified, the first two plesiosaur skeletons ever found an the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany. Her opinions were regularly sought from the scholars of the day and her reputation began to grow.
But if things were tricky for women scientists in the 20th Century, in the 19th they were nigh on impossible. Although more than intellectually qualified she was not allowed to join the Geological Society of London because of her sex and class. The science world was dominated by rich Anglican men and Mary grew resentful of the fact that she knew more about fossils and geology than many of the wealthy men to whom she sold – it was always the gentlemen geologists who published the scientific descriptions of the specimens she found, often neglecting to even mention her name.
Mary Anning fell ill with breast cancer in her forties, she had lost a lot of her hard-earned money in a bad investment, and her reliance on laudanum for pain made her a bit of an outcast in her community. The scientific community did however at least feel a pang of conscience and affection for her. The geological community raised money from its members to help with her expenses and the council of the newly created Dorset County Museum made her an honorary member. Mary died in 1847 aged just 47, but her legend, just like the fossils she found, has lived on.
Posthumously, president of the Geological Society Henry De la Beche, wrote a eulogy that he read to a meeting of the society and published in its quarterly transactions, the first such eulogy given for a woman. Charles Dickens wrote an article about her life in February 1865 in his literary magazine All the Year Round that emphasised the difficulties she had overcome, especially the scepticism of her fellow townspeople. He ended the article with: "The carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and has deserved to win it."
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