The forgotten women in UK geoscience
Megan Jacobs (UK)
The history of geosciencein the UK is heavily dominated by men, with eminent figures such as Sir Richard Owen, Charles Lyell, William Buckland and Gideon Mantell famed for making many big advances in the early days of the science. However, in the background were powerful and intelligent women, leading, directing, guiding, even pushing their husbands with hard work.
Tenacity and dedication to the subject and, presumably devotion and loyalty to their respective spouses. Ultimately, a small army of behind-the-scenes women advanced the science by leaps and bounds, such that, by the end of the nineteenth century, they had laid the foundations for women to move from the peripheries of academe to its heart.
During the 1800s and early 1900s, male scientists often had female assistants, whose research and findings were included in the lead scientists’ work. However, as the women themselves were not labelled as scientists, they did not receive the acknowledgement or credit they rightly deserved. It has been said that some women published scientific papers using a male pseudonym, allowing for their research to be revealed to the scientific community, without suffering the repercussions of an elitist and blatantly sexist society.
In recent years, we have become increasingly more aware of women’s contributions to science and the often-unfair treatment they received from the 1600s, until the last couple of decades. Certainly, the most famous woman in the earth sciencesof the nineteenth century must be Mary Anning. At the time, she went mostly uncredited and faced many challenges with the academic community. However, Anning’s fossil collecting, and acute observational skills, guaranteed that her name went into the history books, with the story of her life now being taught in primary schools across the country.
Most of the troubles Anning had during her working life, and the problems gaining respect within the community, were likely down to class as well as gender. This is because many of the women I mention later didn’t face the same challenges ofacceptance due to their high social standing, but still battled with the sexism within the sciences. For many of these women, it was their husbands that took credit for their intellect and hard work.
Although Anning’s fame is rightfully deserved, she now overshadows all the other women who made significant contributions to palaeontology in the nineteenth century, most of whom you may never have heard of. Some of these incredible, pioneering women are placed under the spotlight here to give them the credit they deserve.
Etheldred Benett (1776 – 1845)
Born in Wiltshire into a wealthy family, Etheldred had a privileged start to life. However, like most women at the time, she was unable to access higher education and was a self-taught geologist. From the age of around 30, she devoted her time to studying the fossils and geology in the Warminster/Wiltshire area where she lived, specialising in the Upper Greensand of the county, and was especially enamoured by its abundant fossil sponges.
Her social standing came as an advantage, as Aylmer Bourke Lambert – a founding member of the Linnaean Society, with an avid interest in fossils and geology – was a close relative and able to introduce her to many leading geologists of the period. This ultimately led to her working closely with Gideon Mantell and James Sowerby, and keeping correspondence with many leading researchers of the time.
Naturally, over the years, her collection of Greensand fossils grew, amounting to over 1,500 specimens, becoming one of the largest and most diverse collections of the time. Over forty of her specimens were included in Sowerby’s famous and highly sought after Mineral Conchology, making Benett the second largest contributor to the publication.
Her collection also included microfossils, making her one of the first geologists to sieve sediment for small specimens. Today, microfossils are heavily relied on by many industries to date the rocks while prospecting. Clearly, Etheldred was ahead of the game.
Despite her social standing and wealth, Benett was still victim to the arch sexism prevalent at the time. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of St Petersburg and made a member of the Natural History Society of Moscow, under the assumption she was in fact male due to her first name. And even with the doctorate, the Geological Society (GS) of London would still not admit her into the society due to being a woman. After the dismissal from the GS and the assumption she was male, Benett was noted as saying:
… so you see that scientific people, in general, have a very low opinion of the abilities of my sex”.
Her best-known works are the first measured sections of Upper Chicksgrove quarry at Tisbury in Wiltshire (Sowerby published this without her permission in 1816), in which she correlated fossils to specific horizons. She then worked with Gideon Mantell to correlate the Cretaceous rocks in Wiltshire with those in Dorset, using their contained fossils.
As a result, Gideon Mantell described Benett as:
A lady of great talent and indefatigable research”.
Upon her death, the bulk of her collection was sold to a physician, Thomas Wilson, who donated it to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and the rest is scattered between the Natural History Museum in London, Leeds Museum, Bristol Museum, and St Petersburg Museum in Russia, where it remains available for study to this day.
Etheldred Benett has frequently been credited with being the first female geologist in the UK. Her work developed geology as a field of science and established her as a pioneer in biostratigraphy, some 40 years before women were allowed to attend universities.
Barbara Rawdon-Hastings (1810 – 1858)
Barbara Rawdon-Hastings was born in Warwickshire, in the English Midlands and, after her father’s death when she was barely a year old, she became Baroness Grey de Ruthyn, then Marchioness of Hastings when she married George Rawdon. However, after George died in 1845, she went onto marry Captain Hastings Reginald Yelverton, and the newly-wed pair settled at Efford House, just outside Lymington, in Hampshire. It was this relocation that began her obsession with palaeontology and the assembly of her famous fossil collection.
During her time living near Hordle, she had amassed a collection of over 1,500 Eocene fossils from Hordle Cliff on the mainland and the Isle of Wight. This huge collection, as well as her observations of the fossils, caught the attention of many eminent scientists of the time.
She presented scientific papers in 1847, the first describing two crocodile skulls and a turtle from Hordle Cliff, concluding that the same remains found in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight showed that the Solent area had once been a freshwater river or lake. As well as publishing papers in 1852 and 1853 on the stratigraphy of Hordle Cliff, her goal was to provide information, which could be used to create a comprehensive study of Tertiary stratigraphy.
In 1848, the great comparative anatomist, Sir Richard Owen, described the thousands of fossils in her collection as “some of the finest in the world”, in an account of her collection of Hordle Cliff fossils in the Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for that year. And, in acknowledgement of her efforts, Sir Richard named a fossil crocodile from the Barton Beds at Hordle Cliffs after her, Crocodilus (now Diplocynodon) hastingsae.
Her work and dedication to the subject was also noted by Edward Forbes (a British naturalist and a pioneer in the field of biogeography), who described her as:
… one of the most excellent (and without exception the cleverest) woman I ever met”.
Shortly before her death, she sold her entire collection to the Natural History Museum in London, where it remains for study.
Charlotte Murchison (1788 – 1869)
Charlotte Murchison was born in Hampshire, England and, at the age of 27, she met Roderick (later Sir Roderick) Impey Muchison, who she married a year later. Roderick, at the time was a cavalry officer. However, Charlotte persuaded her husband to leave the army and pursue a scientific career (during which he became one of the most pre-eminent geologists of the eighteenth century). After much persuading, the couple finally moved to London in 1824, and began attending lectures on geology and chemistry.
Charlotte has famously been depicted in the 2020 movie Ammonite as Mary Anning’s romantic interest, and some ten to 15 years younger and somewhat uneducated. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Charlotte was some 11 years older, well-educated and highly knowledgeable (and there is no evidence of any romantic connection). Charlotte and Mary met while Charlotte was on fieldwork with her husband, Roderick. They visited the southern coast of England, where Charlotte went fossil collecting with Mary Anning, and is said to have become close friends from then on. After the visit, Roderick writes that the work of the two women resulted in his (!) fossil collection being much enriched.
During their marriage, Charlotte and her husband travelled widely around the UK and Europe. In 1828, she and her husband joined Charles Lyell on a tour of Europe, where they used the opportunity to expand their knowledge. Lyell is quoted with saying:
Mrs. M. is very diligent, sketching, labelling specimens & making out shells in which last, she is an invaluable assistant.”
Unfortunately, on one of her travels to Italy, Charlotte caught malaria, which affected her for the rest of her life. But she didn’t let it stop her going out into the field and studying her fossils.
During these travels, Charlotte collected and purchased fossils to add to her collection, as well as to study them. Over time, she built an extraordinary collection that was catalogued and educational, with many specimens illustrated in works by James Sowerby and William Buckland. Charlotte also made many drawings of scenic views, geological outcrops, and the fossils she found, which were incorporated into her husband’s works.
In 1832, Lyell refused to let women attend his geology lectures at Kings College, London, insisting it would be ‘unacademical’. However, Charlotte and Mary Somerville were among the ladies insisting on being able to attend.
After lobbying from Charlotte and a trailblazing group of women, the university council finally ruled that ladies were to be admitted to all lectures. It is widely thought that Charlotte’s presence in the crowd swayed Lyell’s decision on the matter.
Although Charlotte spent her life following her passion, her husband took most of the credit for her work, as she was far more committed and knowledgeable than him. It is thought that many of Roderick’s publications were jointly written and researched, but only Roderick’s name was on the paper.
Roderick received a fellowship at the Royal Society, and was elected president of the Geological Society and knighted; whereas Charlotte received no recognition for her dedication to the subject and numerous advancements in the field. However, James Sowerby saw the talent of Charlotte, and honoured her by naming an ammonite in her honour, Ammonites murchisonae, based on a specimen she found and sketched while collecting in Yorkshire.
Elizabeth Philpot (1780 – 1857)
Elizabeth Philpot was born in London, and in 1805, relocated to Lyme Regis with her sisters, Mary and Margaret (often referred to as the Philpot Sisters). They soon settled into their new life and quickly became avid fossil collectors.
When they moved to Lyme, Mary Anning was still a young girl.It is established from letters and diaries, that the Philpot sisters and Anning formed a strong friendship over the years, without the barriers of age or social class. Despite the 20-year age gap, Elizabeth, her sisters and Mary Anning were often seen collecting together, and Elizabeth encouraged the young Anning to read and understand the science behind the fossils they were finding.
The sisters compiled a large fossil collection of over 400 specimens, but most notably fossil fish. They ensured the collection was meticulously labelled, organised and curated. Many of the labels contained detailed explanations of what Elizabeth thought these extinct creatures may have looked like. The collection was studied by many of the leading scientists at the time. One such instance was a visit by Louis Agassiz, the famous Swiss scientist, who Philpot helped immensely in his research for his book, Studies of Fossil Fish. Agassiz even named a new fish species in their honour, Eugnathus philpotiae.
One notable event for Elizabeth was in 1826. Anning had found a belemnite fossil, with what appeared to be an ink sac and showed it to Elizabeth. Elizabeth was able to remove some of the preserved ink, grind it down and mix with water to revive it, confirming it was in fact, fossil ink. She then used the ink to pen a letter and drawing of an ichthyosaur skull to William Buckland. Fossil ink is now commonly used by artists in Lyme Regis.
During her time in Lyme Regis, Elizabeth became well known in the scientific community, with a reputation for her knowledge of fossil fish and her extensive collection, with the leading geologists and palaeontologists of the time consulting and visiting her in Dorset.
The Philpot sisters’ collection is now housed in the Oxford Natural History Museum.
The Philpot legacy lives on, but very much in the shadow of Mary Anning. A museum in Lyme Regis was commissioned in 1902 by Thomas Philpot, a relative of Elizabeth. The museum was called the Philpot Museum, now renamed the Lyme Regis Museum.
Mary Horner Lyell (1808 – 1873)
Mary Horner Lyell was born in London into an academic family. Mary’s interest in geology was sparked by her father, Leonard Horner, a geology professor and president of the Geological Society of London. In 1832, Mary married Charles Lyell, who was taught geology by her father and went on to become one of the most prominent geologists of history.
Her marriage to Charles was not restricted to being the normal ‘housewife’. She accompanied him on his fieldwork across the world, sketching and painting geological drawings, cataloguing the collections, and acting as his scribe in later years. She also aided him with research and translating letters and papers from European geologists. Historians believe that she also made major contributions to her husband’s work, especially the famous Principles of Geology. By then, her husband was fully supportive of women participating in the science, as she attended special meetings of the London Geological Society along with other lectures.
Mary was also present for many conversations between her husband and Charles Darwin. Darwin described her as a “monument of patience”, for putting up with the “unsophisticated geology” talk between himself and her husband. Mary went on to supply Darwin with barnacles for his studies, something which made Darwin realise that Mary really enjoyed all the geology talk.
Later, Mary specialised in conchology (study of molluscs). Her most noted work was a study of land snails from the Canary Islands that she had collected and studied. Her work was comparable to Darwin’s study on Galapagos birds and tortoises. She had also developed correspondence with other geo-WAGGs (wives and girlfriends of geologists), most notably Elizabeth Agassiz, Louis Agassiz’s wife.
These few women are a small number of those that, at the time, stood up against the male dominated field and cleared a path for many of us to follow. Change and acceptance were slow, and it wasn’t until 1919 that women were to be Fellows of the Geological Society of London. However, there are now more women in the science than ever before, and palaeontology is all the better for it.
It would be nice to say that, as a female geoscientist, I could say that the historic views held by those in the past have been abolished, but sadly this just is not always true.
Although women in academia face different challenges to those faced by the women of the 1800s – we can publish freely, join societies and hold very senior positions – there remains misogyny and sexism within the discipline. From being mansplained (one instance was a female scientist being told she should read her own paper after presenting at a conference) and being dismissed for our efforts. I hope by the end of my career (and hopefully sooner), all women will be seen and treated as equals, and the historic views, will be exactly that – history.
About the author
Megan Jacobs is a PhD student, studying the Wessex Formation stratigraphy, and vertebrate taphonomy and diagenesis at the University of Portsmouth, School of the Environment, Geography and Geoscience.