To mark this year’s International Women's Day, we are delighted to launch our new online exhibition featuring the often-undocumented historical contributions of women to geology.
The online exhibition ‘Women in Geology in the 17th to 19th Centuries’ highlights the contributions of 14 remarkable women who engaged with geology and its related sciences.
The exhibition was originally written in 2013 and has been revised to spotlight more women, reflecting new evidence identified by our Archivist in the Library’s historical collections.
The revised exhibition features the work and participation of women such as the well-known fossil collector Mary Anning, Etheldred Bennet, Mary Buckland, and Charlotte Murchison, as well as lesser-known protagonists who came to light in our collections.
Some of these new figures include scientific illustrator sisters Susanna and Anna Lister from the late 1600s; the female social circle in Wales who helped illustrate Roderick Murchison’s book ‘The Silurian System’ (1839); and Mrs Cazalet of Torquay, fossil collector and patron who funded the first scientific excavations of Kent's Cavern, Devon.
As our Library Team continues to dig deep into our historical collections, we look forward to unveiling and celebrating more women who engaged with geology across the centuries.
Self portrait of Cecile Braun aged 19, July 1829.
Women and Geology in the 17th to 19th Centuries
Visit the online exhibition
Cheirolepis cummingiae, coloured lithograph based on an original drawing by Lady Eliza Gordon Cumming.