Mary Buckland née Morland (1797-1857), fossil collector and scientific artist
Mary Morland was born in 1797, at Sheepstead House, Abingdon, Berkshire, the eldest daughter of the solicitor Benjamin Morland (1768-1833) and his wife Harriet Baster (1777-1799). It was Mary’s father who initially stimulated her interest in geology, but following her mother’s early death she spent much of her childhood living with Sir Christopher Pegge, Regius Professor of Anatomy, Oxford, and his wife. Pegge, who additionally lectured in geology and mineralogy, encouraged Mary’s scientific pursuits and, after his death in 1822, left Mary ‘‘his mineral cabinets and all the minerals and fossils contained in them at the time of my decease and all my books of natural history and comparative anatomy as a mark of my esteem and regard for her.’’
Mary Morland met her future husband William Buckland who was professor of mineralogy and geology at Oxford University before or around 1819. Their daughter, Elizabeth, related an anecdote of their first meeting in her biography of Buckland:
“…Dr Buckland was once travelling somewhere in Dorsetshire, and reading a new and weighty book of Cuvier’s which he had just received from the publisher; a lady was also in the coach, and amongst her books was this identical one, which Cuvier had sent her. They got into conversation, the drift of which was so peculiar that Dr Buckland at last exclaimed, ‘You must be Miss Morland, to whom I am about to deliver a letter of introduction.’” [E O Gordon, ‘Life and correspondence of William Buckland’ (1894), p91.]
Silhouettes of William and Mary Buckland examining their respective palaeontology collections, their son Frank is playing underneath the table. From the E O Gordon, 'Life and Correspondence of William Buckland', John Murray, London (1894). GSL Library collection.
Scientific illustrator
It is probably as a skilled natural history artist that Mary Morland is best known today. From at least 1820 she was providing illustrations for William Buckland. His fellow scientists were so impressed with her drawings that they requested that she undertake illustrations for them too.
Engraving of two views of a fossil rhinoceros skull based on drawings by Mary Morland. At the encouragement of William Buckland, Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) asked Mary to send him drawings of the skull which was found near Rugby in 1815. The images were published in Cuvier's book ‘Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles’, Vol 2, pt 1 (1822). GSL Library collection.
Fossilised leaves from Stonesfield by Mary Morland. The original drawings were sent to Kaspar Sternberg (1761-1838) by William Buckland. From Sternberg's 'Essai d'un exposé géognostico-botanique de la flore du monde primitif' (1832). GSL Library collection [Originally published in part 3 of Kaspar Sternberg's 'Flora der Vorwelt' (1823).]
Pencil study of two fragmentary spines from the fossil fish Oracanthus milleri, by Mary Buckland, [1834 or after]. (GSL Archive ref: LDGSL/614/3/134/b).
The drawing was sent to Louis Agassiz as part of the research for his publication 'Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles' (1833-1843/4). Her name is written on the front in William Buckland's distinctive handwriting.
'Fragment of Jaw of Megalosaurus' by Mary Morland, lithographed by Henry Perry. (Archive ref: LDGSL/56/1/2)
This famous image, probably drawn around 1822, accompanied William Buckland’s seminal paper “Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield”, which was published in the Transactions of the Geological Society of London, Series 2, vol 1 (1824). The paper was the first scientific description of a dinosaur.
Married life
On William Buckland obtaining the canonry of Christ Church (and the finances that went with it) the couple were finally able to marry in December 1825. Their post-wedding tour of the continent lasted nearly a year during which they met the most notable natural scientists of the day such as Georges Cuvier and Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859).
After her marriage, during which she gave birth to nine children, Mary’s opportunities for scientific pursuits were limited. However, Buckland relied on his wife’s scientific knowledge and proof-reading abilities to support his geological lectures and publications as well as her co-operation in his experiments. The most famous occurred when Buckland was puzzling over a slab of New Red Sandstone showing trace fossils of footprints of some unknown animal. Around 2 or 3 in the morning it suddenly came to him that it might be tortoise tracks. He called Mary down and she made some pastry on the kitchen table. Buckland fetched the family tortoise and had it walk over the dough leaving almost identical marks.
Right: Image of the New Red Sandstone slab in question, which was found near Dumfries, Scotland. Published in William Buckland's 'Geology and mineralogy considered with reference to natural theology' (1836). GSL Library collection.
'View of the landslip from Great Bindon', Dorset, 1840, tinted lithograph based on a drawing by Mary Buckland. (Archive ref: LDGSL/56/1/6)
Mary also accompanied Buckland on his various geological trips, such as viewing the site of the Axmouth Landslide in 1839. This was the first large-scale landslide ever to have been the subject of detailed scientific description by geologists.
The Bucklands were quickly on the spot, “and while the Professor made careful investigations into the cause of the catastrophe, his wife, with her clever pencil, made a series of careful drawings of this phenomenon....” The results were published in Buckland’s and William Daniel Conybeare’s work, 'Ten plates comprising a plan, sections, and views, representing the changes produced on the coast of East Devon, between Axmouth and Lyme Regis by the subsidence of the land and elevation of the bottom of the sea, on the 26th December, 1839, and 3rd of February, 1840' (1840).
Towards the end of William Buckland's life he began to show signs of a mental breakdown, possibly connected to a head injury sustained from falling from a coach. Eventually he had to be placed in an asylum in Clapham where he died in August 1856. Although Mary herself was in poor health, she continued her scientific studies – collecting and investigating marine zoophytes and sponges – until her own death just over a year later.