Women also studied animals that didn't come into the category of companion animals: the correspondence chosen here has to do with barnacles, insects, and worms. (The term ‘insect’ was formerly loosely applied to any small or insignificant animal.) Although they might be collected for aesthetic reasons and studied purely for their own interest, the economic importance of these creatures should not be overlooked. Barnacles slowed down ships, insects destroyed crops, and worms were important to soil fertility. In this arena, female practitioners could be taken seriously: no one could risk doing otherwise, if it sounded as if they knew what they were talking about.One of Darwin's earliest female correspondents on the subject of zoology (specifically, barnacles), and geology, was Mary Elizabeth Lyell, the wife of the geologist Charles Lyell and daughter of the geologist Leonard Horner. Leonard Horner had taken great care with the education of his daughters; when Mary was 5 years old he noted that she was getting on well in reading, and was learning geography. When she was 13, he was teaching her Italian, and when she was 18 he was congratulating her on her drawing, which she studied formally, and planning to study shells with her. Mary collected land snails on Madeira in 1854. She regularly travelled with her husband and presumably helped him with his work, although the extent of her contribution is unknown.
...MoreBook Samantha Evans (2017) Darwin and Women: A Selection of Letters.
Chapter
Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Companion Animals
(/isis/citation/CBB104882127/)
Chapter
Charissa Varma;
(2017)
Children
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Book
Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Darwin and Women: A Selection of Letters
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Chapter
Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Editors
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Chapter
Paul White;
(2017)
Religion
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Book
Melissa Bailes;
(2017)
Questioning Nature: British Women's Scientific Writing and Literary Originality, 1750-1830
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Chapter
Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Ascent of Woman
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Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Marriage
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Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Scientific Wives and Allies
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Chapter
Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Observing Plants
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Chapter
Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Friends
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Book
Darwin, Charles Robert;
Burkhardt, Frederick;
Secord, James A.;
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The Correspondence of Charles Darwin
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Chapter
Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Servants and Governesses
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Chapter
Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Observing Humans
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Thesis
Sponsel, Alistair William;
(2009)
Coral Reef Formation and the Sciences of Earth, Life, and Sea, c. 1770--1952
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Chapter
Samantha Evans;
(2017)
Writers and Critics
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Thesis
Gass, Gillian Linda;
(2006)
Managing Marine Life: Scientific and Practical Work at Two British Marine Stations, 1884--1902
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Article
Hodge, M. J. S.;
(2009)
Capitalist Contexts for Darwinian Theory: Land, Finance, Industry and Empire
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Article
Kölbl-Ebert, Martina;
(2002)
British Geology in the Early Nineteenth Century: A Conglomerate with a Female Matrix
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Kölbl-Ebert, Martina;
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Barbara Marchioness of Hastings (1810--1858)---Fossil Collector and “Lady-geologist”
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