Two new JGSG articles on Mary Elizabeth Horner Lyell and Mary Anning
- iapgeoethics
- 2 days ago
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The Journal of Geoethics and Social Geoscience (JGSG) published two new open access articles on 22 August 2025 in the Special Issue "Women in Geosciences", edited by Daniela Di Bucci, Luisa Sabato and Martina Zucchi.
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The new articles can be cited as follows:
Cofano A. and De Ceglie R. (2025). Travels with Lyell. Mary Horner’s “hidden” contribution to early nineteenth century geology. Journal of Geoethics and Social Geosciences, 3(Special Issue), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.13127/jgsg-87
Abstract:
The early nineteenth century marked a crucial phase in the development of Earth sciences. While traditional historical narratives have largely focused on male scientists, a more composite picture is now emerging that recognises the participation of women who, in various ways and within the constraints of their time, contributed to the formation of the geosciences. In Britain, in particular, many women were actively engaged in scientific work, conducting research along the coasts and in the countryside, helping to uncover the Earth’s geological past.
Despite being excluded from formal scientific institutions, women often found ways to participate in informal networks of collaboration, carving out significant roles for themselves in a male‑dominated scientific environment. This article focuses on
Mary Elizabeth Horner Lyell (1808‑1873). Reconstructing her contributions is difficult: she did not publish under her own name and much of her work is indistinctly intertwined with that of her husband, the geologist Charles Lyell (1797‑1875).
Through the examination of archival material, travelogues and correspondence, this study explores Mary Horner Lyell’s work as a geologist, conchologist, field assistant, translator and correspondent within international scientific networks. Her case illustrates
how women, though often invisible in the published literature, played essential roles in the production and circulation of scientific knowledge of the early nineteenth century.
Keywords:
Mary Elisabeth Horner, Women in Geosciences, Conchology, Scientific Correspondence
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Cofano A. and De Ceglie R. (2025). Monsters and dragons of the past: the ichthyosaur of Mary Anning. Journal of Geoethics and Social Geosciences, 3(Special Issue), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.13127/jgsg-83
Abstract:
In 1811, following the discovery of a skull by her brother Joseph, Mary Anning (1799-1847), then aged 11, discovered the fossil remains of what would be identified as the first complete ichthyosaur, a decisive breakthrough in the history of understanding past life.
This contribution examines the discovery of the ichthyosaur not as an isolated event, but as part of a wider network of female contributions to early nineteen-century geosciences. Despite their exclusion from formal education and scientific institutions, women such as Mary Anning, certainly the best known, Elizabeth Philpot (1779-1857), Charlotte Hugonin Murchison (1788-1869) and Mary Morland Buckland (1797-1857) played crucial roles in the development of early nineteenth-century geosciences, collaborating with each other and with male geologists, often without recognition. Through manuscript and printed sources, we reconstruct how their expertise, from fossil preparation to scientific illustration, shaped disciplines then in the making.
The story of Anning and the other women geologists offers an emblematic case study of the gender dynamics in nineteen-century science, between male appropriation of knowledge and female resistance.
Keywords:
Women in geosciences, History of palaeontology, Ichthyosaurus, Fossils
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