Women Geologists 1780–1840: Re-reading Charlotte Murchison

Abstract

AbstractIt has long been established that many women were interested participants in the earth sciences in the first half of the nineteenth century. Until now, much of the scholarship has focused on the figure of the “geological wife” (or daughter or sister), whose skills in languages, drawing, and fossil collecting often provided invaluable assistance to their husbands. But since they are viewed as helpmates, or assistants, these women’s stories have mostly been told through the lens of the careers of their male family members, and they only rarely have been considered to have played any creative role in the research. This essay reconsiders that scholarship by looking at the work of Charlotte Murchison (née Hugonin). Re-evaluating Charlotte’s work, the essay demonstrates the key role her fossil collection and illustrations played in the development of key theoretical ideas (including Charles Lyell’s uniformitarianism) in the 1820s, and that the significance of her work was a key factor in pushing for women’s access to academic geological lectures in the 1830s. Charlotte’s story – told on its own terms – exposes the limitations of viewing women’s participation as familial assistance. It enables us to see how this paradigm has obfuscated our understanding of women’s intellectual autonomy, and of their significant, independent research achievements.