#340: Mary Anning

Mary Anning was an early palaeontologist. She was particularly linked with the town of Lyme Regis in Dorset. There is a museum largely dedicated to her life there, and she has also been a recent stamp release with images of her finds.

She knew far more than other learned gentlemen of the time, but her gender prevented her from being included in debates and other aspects of work at that time.

A few years ago, a fundraising campaign was successful in raising funds for a statue to be installed in Lyme Regis.

A statue of pioneering 19th-century fossil hunter and palaeontologist Mary Anning was unveiled in her home town of Lyme Regis on what would have been her 222nd birthday. A monument worthy of this monumental woman was revealed on Saturday 21 May 2022 by Professor Alice Roberts.

The installation of the statue marked the culmination of a four year campaign by the Mary Anning Rocks group which was started by schoolgirl Evie Swire, then aged 11 and her mother, Anya Pearson.

The statue is situated at the junction between Long Entry and Gun Cliff Walk.

I've been to pay my respects each time I've visited since it was unveiled. I shall be heading back there next month.

Image: Sam Parkinson

#312: Stamp Issue: Mary Anning

Stamps are often given designs which connect with Natural History, as well as historical figures,  A recent issue featured Mary Anning. She will be featured in a forthcoming post as young people deserve to learn about her pioneering work in an area which is likely to feature in the specification.

What other stamp issues have a Natural History theme?

I've previously used stamp design as a creative task. A blank outline of a stamp (although I need to find one with the King rather than the late Queen is a useful template for creative design work.

#206: Natural History Reading List #14: 'The Great Naturalists'

A book published by the Natural History Museum.

Cheap second hand copies are available from various online stores.

It features the following people. 

How many do you know something about? 

What was their particular contribution to the discipline and to Natural History.

Why not give a name to each student. Make sure you have a diverse range of people and backgrounds and contributions.

The Classical World
- Aristotle
- Theophrastus
- Pedianos Dioscorides
- Pliny the Elder

The Renaissance
- Otto Brunfels
- Leonhart Fuchs
- Ulisse Aldrovandi
- Andrea Cisalpino
- Pierre Belon
- Konrad Gessner

The Enlightenment
- Nicolaus Steno
- John Ray
- Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
- Robert Hooke
- Hans Sloane
- Mark Catesby
- Carl Linnaeus
- George-Louis Buffon
- Georg Steller
- Michel Adanson
- Erasmus Darwin
- William Bartram
- Joseph Banks
- Johann Fabricus
- James Hutton
- Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
- Antoine Jussieu
- George Cuvier
- William Smith

19th Century
- Alexander von Humboldt
- John James Audubon
- William Buckland
- Charles Lyell
- Mary Anning
- Richard Owen
- Jean-Louis Agassiz
- Charles Darwin
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- Asa Gray

#175: Oxford University Museum of Natural History

This is a place which should definitely be on a list of places to visit for those who want to explore palaeontology and see a wealth of artefacts from various historical periods. It is next door to the wonderful Pitt Rivers Museum, which is an anthropological treasure house as well, and will have its own post on the blog. If you can get to Oxford, this is well worth a look.

 The Palaeontology page is good. They have artefacts from William Buckland and Mary Anning in their collection. The building is dramatic and impressive and based over several floors. The pillars are made from different rock types, which covers geology as well.

I've visited a few times.

Image: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

Over half a million of the museum's collection of items have now been digitised and can be accessed online.

The museum also offers a range of learning workshops, including some for GCSE. One can imagine that if the new specification offers a suitable structure for these that the museum might develop something specifically for the GCSE Natural History.