Have you heard of Elizabeth Anderson Gray? She was one of
the most important and prolific female Scottish fossil collectors of her time,
responsible for amassing collections that are still vital to our knowledge of
the stratigraphy and species composition of the Ordovician
and Silurian
rocks of Scotland.
Born in Alloway, Ayreshire, to an Innkeeper, Elizabeth’s family then relocated
to become farmers in Girvan,
a small coastal town 60 miles south of Glasgow. Although she moved occasionally
in her life (to Glasgow and to Edinburgh), it was from the rocks around Girvan that
Elizabeth would collect most of her specimens during her long lifetime.
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| Elizabeth Anderson Gray spent her entire life fossil hunting. Her collections were vital to our understanding of early life on earth. (Picture from Carrick Scotland: Beyond the Tourist Guides) |
Elizabeth Gray was dedicated to record keeping and extending
our understanding of the diversity of early Palaeozoic life. Despite her modest
early education, her lifelong learning was augmented in 1869 when she was
invited to attend geology lectures for women at the University of Glasgow.
Elizabeth was clearly an astute woman. She ensured the
importance of her finds was recognised by having them formally described by
established scientists (who were of course, all men). Her legacy also survived
in the Gray Collections, which were sold to museums across the United Kingdom,
the main ones being the Natural History Museum in London and the Hunterian
in Glasgow. Many of her finds are type specimens, the material that defines a
species taxonomically, such as Hudsonaster
grayae (an early starfish), Archophiactis
grayae (also an echinoderm), and Lophospira
trispiralis (a type of mollusc).
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| One of the fossils from the Gray Collection. ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London |
Many specimens collected by Elizabeth are referred to in the
proceedings of the Natural History Society of Glasgow between 1868 and 1878,
and unlike many other women geologists of her time (notably Mary Anning)
she even had the honour of having some named after her – although it was the
surname she shared with her husband, rather than forename, that was mostly used
for this purpose. Other material was named for Girvan, the area she found it
in.
Using her detailed observational skill, Elizabeth presented
a list of the fossils she collected in Ayrshire which was extensively used by
other geologists in both Scotland and England. It formed an important
contribution to the British Geological Survey’s volume on Silurian Scottish
rocks.
The Grays were friends with the well-known geologist Charles
Lapworth and fossil collector Jane Donald Longstaff. Although considered by both herself and the
professionals of the day as an amateur, Elizabeth was undeniably a skilled one;
responsible for uncovering a great deal of the diversity of Palaeozoic rocks in
Scotland. Years of collecting led Elizabeth to be well versed in geology and
sedimentology, keeping careful records of her work. It is because she recorded
the locations, geology and associations of each of her specimens that Gray’s
collections remain invaluable to those studying the Ordivician and Silurian
today.
After her husband’s death in 1887, Elizabeth continued to
collect fossils, often with the help of her two daughters, Alice and Edith, who
undoubtedly knew a great deal thanks to the many “geologising” family holidays
taken over the years. In 1900 Elizabeth’s contributions to geology were
recognised by the Geological Society of Glasgow, who made her an honorary
member. The Natural History Society of Glasgow followed suit a year later.
In 1903, at the stately age of 72, Elizabeth was awarded the
Murchison
Geological Fund from the Geological Society of London, for her lifelong
contribution to early Palaeozoic geological research. She continued to collect
and disseminate her material until the year before her death from bronchitis on
11th February, 1924.
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| Elizabeth's daughters continued her work, they were known as "the Misses Grey". ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London |
She had spent almost a century working in the field, and yet
so few people know her name. Her daughters – referred to as “the Misses Gray” -
continued to collect; diligently uncovering new specimens as their mother had
before them. They eventually sold her remaining collection to the Natural
History Museum, ensuring their mother’s work would survive and remain available
for future scientific study.
Without her, our understanding of the early Palaeozoic in
Scotland and the UK would be much the poorer.
(this article first appeared on Trowelblazers.com 27/5/15)
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To find out more about the Gray collection at the Natural
History Museum in London, search for her fossils here: http://data.nhm.ac.uk/
For more on the geology of
Girvan, and the rest of Scotland, try http://www.scottishgeology.com/geo/regional-geology/southern-uplands/girvan-to-ballantrae-coast/
References
Burek, C. V., & Higgs, B. (2007) The Role of Women in the History of Geology. The Geological
Society; Bath.
MacBride E. W., & Spencer W. K (1938) Two New
Echinoidea, Aulechinus and Ectinechinus, and an Adult Plated Holothurian,
Eothuria, from the Upper Ordovician of Girvan, Scotland. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 229
McCance M. (2002) Hugh Miller, 1802-1856, Geologist
and Writer: His Links with 19th Century Girvan. Ayrshire Notes No.23
Peach, B. N, Horne, J., & Teall, J. J. H. (1899) The Silurian rocks of Britain: Vol. I.Scotland. Glasgow: J. Hedderwick & Sons. Available from: https://archive.org/details/silurianrocksbr00tealgoog
Weddel, R. ‘Some
Significant Women in the Early Years of the Natural History Society of Glasgow’
[online]. Available from: http://www.glasgownaturalhistory.org.uk/gn25_3/weddle_women.pdf
