Hole in the Barn Door

 

Mary Anning’s family lived in Lyme Regis, Dorset, in the early 1800’s. They rented a house so near the shore, storms often flooded their home. Mary’s father was a cabinet maker who made money on the side collecting fossils from coastal cliff-side beds and selling them to tourists. Times were hard for the working class after the Napoleonic Wars, and the rising popularity of fossil collecting helped keep the family from abject poverty. After her father’s death, Mary, her mother and her older brother continued gathering ammonites, belemnites, and other fossils to support themselves. Collecting fossils was a risky business, as the collapsing cliff face that exposed these treasures also threatened to bury the collector.  Because she was a woman, Mary wasn’t permitted to join the Geological Society of London. She was frequently denied credit for her scientific contributions. But her findings helped to change the way we see prehistoric life and the history of the world.