Mary Anning

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Mary Anning

• By
• Jennifer Grech

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• Mary was born on 21 May 1799 into a humble family
  in Lyme Regis, on the Dorset coast. She and her
  brother Joseph were the only survivors among 10
  children born to Richard Anning and his wife Mary
  Moore.

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• Named after a sister who died in a house fire,
  Mary herself survived a lightning strike that
  killed three others. Legend had it the lightning
  turned her into a bright and observant child.

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• Her father Richard was a carpenter and
  cabinet-maker who taught his daughter how to look
  for and to clean fossils. They sold the
  curiosities they collected from a stall on the
  seafront, they found customers among the middle
  classes who flocked to Lyme in summer.

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• Their shop was such a feature of the area that
  some people think that Mary was the inspiration
  for the well-known tongue-twister 'She sells
  seashells on the seashore', which was written by
  Terry Sullivan in1908.

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• The family remained very poor though and when
  Richard died in 1810 aged only 44, as a result of
  consumption and injuries following a fall, it
  brought great hardship.
• Young Mary supplemented their meagre income by
  continuing the trade. She had a good eye for
  fossils. The cliffs and foreshore at Lyme are
  rich in belemnites and ammonites, and
  occasionally reptiles and fishes, deposited from
  Jurassic seas 200 million years ago. 
• Waves from the sea and landslides constantly
  exposed new supplies. There were good pickings
  but it was a dangerous living mudflows,
  treacherous tides, unstable cliffs and
  unforgiving sea

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• Mary was literate, despite having only a little
  education. She taught herself geology and
  anatomy. She was visited by, and corresponded
  with, eminent scientists of the time. 
• Her opinions were sought and she was acknowledged
  as an expert in many areas, including on the
  rather unglamorous coprolites (fossil faeces). 

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• Mary also made the discovery that ink from
  squid-like belemnites can be ground up and used
  for drawing.

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• Her life revolved around Lyme Regis. She only
  left once in her lifetime, for a short trip to
  London. Her picture shows a middle aged woman,
  carrying with her hammer, accompanied by her dog,
  Tray.

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• Mary died from cancer, aged 47. For one with such
  disadvantaged beginnings, she had gained the
  respect and imagination of scientific and lay
  public who gave her recognition in her lifetime. 
• Nine years before her death she was given an
  annuity, or annual payment, raised by members of
  the British Association for the Advancement of
  Science and the Geological Society of London. 

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• She was the first honorary member of the new
  Dorset County Museum. 
• Her death in 1847 was recorded by the Geological
  Society (which did not admit women until 1904)
  and her life commemorated by a stained glass
  window in the local church.