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Mary was born into a poor family in a Dorset coastal town of Lyme Regis in 1799. Mary and her brother Joseph were the only two of ten children who survived into adulthood. Life back then was hard and as a young girl Mary had very limited access to education. She attended Sunday schools in churches and learned how to read and write, but never received any formal education. Her father was a cabinet maker and he supported his main income by collecting curios and selling them to tourists. Mary and Joseph often accompanied their parents collecting these weird looking fossils along the coastal cliffs, not knowing the significance or the value of what they collected. After her father passed away when she was 11, Joseph and her took the fossil-collecting business more seriously to feed the family. What they didn’t realise is that the coastal cliffs they frequented were part of what now we call Jurassic Coast, which spans 185 million years of geological history covering Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.  

In early 19th century, the geological community consists mostly of middle class white males, and these individuals had the financial backing to amuse themselves with fascinating fossils and funky-looking animal bones. Initially it was believed that fossils were merely sea creatures that have stranded and died. The theory of extinction was proposed around that time by Georges Curvier, though the scientific community was hesitant to agree with him. The idea of extinction disagrees with their religious beliefs - why would God let some of His creations die off? To put this time into perspective, Darwin’s On The Origin of Species wasn’t even published until 1859. The concept of extinction and evolution were controversial, but Mary and Joseph Anning’s 1811 discovery of the first complete skull of ichtyosaur (which until that time was believed to be a giant fish or an alligator) really rocked the boat (pun intended). Even better, Mary unearthed the outline of its 5.2 metre-long skeleton. The mysterious specimen was groundbreaking (another pun intended), and we know now it is not a fish nor an alligator but a marine reptile that lived 201-194 million years ago.

Drawing of Mary Anning's house in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. June 1842.By W. H. Prdeaux and Edward Liddon [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Following this discovery, Mary decided to focus on this fossil-collecting business and eventually opened a shop at her home in Lyme Regis. The site of this house and shop is now home to the Lyme Regis Museum and I had the privilege to visit it on the weekend and learned more about Mary and saw some amazing original documents and findings. One of the amazing documents indicated that Mary didn’t see the conflict between her paleontological pursue and her Christian belief. Her shop became very popular amongst the scientific community and many enthusiasts as well as royals would visit the shops to satisfy their curiosity as well as filling their collectible cabinets. 

Unfortunately, while many of her discoveries made their ways into museums and onto scientific publications she didn’t quite receive the recognition she deserved. She would painstakingly set these bones into frames to make sketches for better understanding of the anatomy and taught others, her findings were reported in scientific journals by other people, often omitting any credit to Mary who excavated and prepared these fossils. She discovered the first complete skeleton of a Plesiosaurus in 1823, a finding so strange-looking there were rumours that the fossils were fake.  A special meeting was scheduled at the Geological Society of London to discuss this controversy, but Mary wasn’t invited to this lengthy debate. At the end of this meeting, they did agree that the fossil was genuine. The Society never formally admitted Mary in, and they didn’t admit any women until 1904. At this time, Britain women weren’t even allowed to vote and most women work as servants. The fact that Mary was a business owner and a natural born scientist was just too much! IMAGINE - A WOMAN BUSINESS OWNER AND A SCIENTIST!

Autograph letter concerning the discovery of plesiosaurus, from Mary Anning; sketch of plesiosaurus. Source: Wellcome Images via Wikimedia Commons.

Mary Anning never gained much financial security throughout her life, and in 1847 died from breast cancer. Few scientists that worked with her credited or praised her for her work, but we can now appreciate that she was an amazing scientist who not only autodidactically learned about fossils, but also contributed to one of the most fascinating field of science that is paleontology. Her findings can still be seen in Natural History Museum, and she is one of the most famous figures associate with the historical site Jurassic Coast. In 2010, The Royal Society named her as one of ten most influential British Women in history of science. In this post I tried to channel my best Mary Anning look and posed by the iconic site Durdle Door which is part of the Jurassic Coast. I was floored by how beautiful the different sites are and I hope this post has encouraged you to read up more about Mary Anning as well as visit the beautiful Dorset.

For more Vintage Women in Science posts click here

References:

Mary Anning Wikipedia page.

Royal Society “Most Influential British Women in Science”. 

Natural History Museum “Mary Anning: the unsung hero of fossil discovery”

When I say women scientists, who do you think of? I bet most of you will answer Marie Skłodowska Curie. Well, Google agrees. Typing “woman scientist” into the search bar comes up with Madam Curie as first result, and her name is so well known sometimes I think we forget why she’s so famous. Her discovery of the element radium was so groundbreaking it’s easy to ignore the other element polonium. The latter is named after her home country Poland, a home she had to abandon in pursue of higher education.

Born in Warsaw on November 7,1867 Maria Sklodowska was one of five children in a family that struggled financially. She worked as a governess to support her family, an occupation that suited her passion for knowledge and learning. She didn’t hesitate when presented with the opportunity to move to Paris to attend university, leaving Warsaw to enter Sorbonne University in Paris to study physics and mathematics. A year later she met the love of her life and her greatest collaborator Pierre Curie, and together they worked in a research laboratory at the School of Chemistry and Physics in Paris. Their research project was to investigate the invisible rays emitted by uranium, a recently discovered element.

The spontaneous rays arises from uranium was the subject of her thesis, and she used an electrometer to measure the electric charge. She discovered that uranium rays caused the air surrounding the sample to conduct electricity, also noticing that the activity of the compounds depended on the quantity. Her hypothesis is that the radiation was not due to the interaction of molecules but a result of the atom itself. This hypothesis is important in disproving the ancient theory that atoms were indivisible. This idea revolutionises the scientific world and created the field of atomic physics. She coined the term "radioactivity" to describe this phenomenon.

She further investigated a mineral called pitchblende that contains uranium ore, it was observed to be more radioactive than pure uranium. She was convinced that there was something else in the mineral that causes the high radioactivity. Pierre and Marie started looking for this unknown element and eventually discovered a new chemical element polonium in 1898. They, however, never managed to isolate the pure form of polonium. The liquid left behind after the extraction turned out to still be highly radioactive, and discovered another new element that is radioactive but in even smaller quantities - the radium. This element was discovered in 1902 after painstaking research conducted in University of Paris. It was 8 years later in 1910 that she successfully isolated pure radium. The Curies were prolific in their publications, writing and publishing a total of 32 scientific papers between 1898 and 1902. One of their publication reports that diseased, tumor-forming cells were destroyed faster than healthy cells when exposed to radium. They recognised the potential of using radiation in treating cancer. This discovery was seen as a miracle by the public, perpetuating the popularity of radium and radioactivity in commercial products

It is worth noting that her two discoveries came before she was even awarded her doctorate in June 1903. In December 1903 Pierre and Marie were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on radioactivity. She was the first woman to receive Nobel Prize and later in 1911 she was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry after the isolation of pure radium, making her the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. In her later years, she headed the Radium Institute, located next to the museum I visited. The Musée Curie displayed her laboratory and office, and tells the history of Curie research and the great impact the research has on medical advancement. I particularly love the display on her laboratory members and how she was a supportive mentor.

Marie Skłodowska Curie faced many challenges during her career as a woman scientist. Early in her career she considered moving move back to Poland but was refused a place at Krakow University because she was a woman. In 1903 after the discovery of both uranium and polonium Pierre was invited to give a talk at the Royal Institution in London. Marie, however, was not invited as she was a woman and Pierre went alone to this presentation. In December of the same year, Marie was almost skipped from being awarded the Nobel Prize. Gösta Mittag-Leffler, a mathematician who was in the committee and was a supporter of women scientists, alerted Pierre to this and Pierre complained about the lack of recognition. She received the nomination and together with Pierre and Henri Becquerel they were awarded the Nobel Prize. Later in 1911 the French Academy of Sciences also refused to welcome her into the society, and it wasn’t until the 60s where they finally allowed women in. Throughout her life she has faced much opposition from male scientists and even had her personal life scandalised and used against her scientific achievements. After Pierre's death she had a relationship with another scientist that was estranged from his wife and was labeled a homewrecker by the tabloids.

I can say that I am glad nowadays we remember Marie Skłodowska Curie as a great scientist, an empowering woman, the mother to another great woman scientist Irène Joliot-Curie, and someone who has greatly contributed to medical sciences through her work. Marie Curie Hospital was opened in 1930 to focus on radiotherapy for cancer patients and it eventually became the Marie Curie Memorial Foundation. Visiting her laboratory in Paris was an amazing experience and I have really enjoyed learning about her history and achievement. I hope you've also enjoyed this post as this is the last one of this year but I have many more ideas for next year. I'm really looking forward to your comments and suggestions too - thanks!

Dress - 1970s Laura Ashley - eBay

Earrings - Georg Jensen