Natural History | Mary Anning

She sells seashells on the seashore
The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure
So if she sells seashells on the seashore
Then I’m sure she sells seashore shells.

I've missed her birthday by months, but let's talk about Mary Anning, who is thought to have been the inspiration for the poem above.

I first read about her last year, and considering I'm a woman with a (un)healthy interest in paleontology, that's something of a tragedy. I picked up a copy of The Fossil Hunter by Shelley Emling on a lark and was subsequently consumed with anger that I'd never heard of Mary Anning before. I had been obsessed with natural history since childhood - how had all mention of her completely escaped my notice?

In hindsight, it isn't very surprising. Mary Anning was a 19th century fossil hunter and paleontologist who is perhaps most famous for her discovery of several Icthyosaurus skeletons, and the first plesiosaur. Born in 1799 in Lyme Regis to an impoverished family, Mary Anning collected curiosities on the beaches surrounding her home. She had an amazing eye for fossils and took great care to collect them on the dangerous outcrops of Regis, risking life and limb in the pursuit of science.

Unfortunately, if predictably, Mary did not receive the recognition she deserved during her lifetime, and was shunned by the male-dominated scientific community in London. Her part in her own discoveries was left out of the scientific papers publishing her work. While there was a resurgence of interest after her death, she is often forgotten about in the modern public consciousness.

If we're going to talk about paleontology to young kids, then we owe it to them to discuss the women in the field, past and present. It would have done a world of good to me as a young girl to know more about female paleontologists, and female paleontologists deserve to have their work recognized.

I'm hoping the next time I'm back in England I can take a detour to the Lyme Regis Museum, which was built on the site of Mary Anning's home. You should also check out Mary Anning's Revenge, an awesomely named website run by two awesome women working to bring awareness to women's issues in STEM fields.

(an interesting aside - I share my birthday with Mary Anning's death day. Creepy).

The Huntington Library | The Gardens

For the past three years, every time we've driven through Pasadena, I've pestered my best friend when we pass the sign for The Huntington Library. We have to go! 

Minolta SRT 101 & Fujifilm X-TRA ISO 800

I work in a museum, but I can't help visiting other museums during my time off (I suppose that's how you know you're in the right field), so when my 25th birthday rolled around, I knew exactly where I wanted to go to celebrate. Yes, I am a fun and exciting person, why do you ask?

Minolta SRT 101 & Fujifilm X-TRA ISO 800

The grounds are gorgeous, and I could have spent many more hours just wandering around (well, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak - I need better shoes). I live in a desert, which is a lovely environment on its own, but it was refreshing to be around so much damn green. 

My favorite area was definitely the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science, a large, classic iron and glass greenhouse that was filled with interesting interactive exhibits - and plants, lots of plants. I'm the exact opposite of a green thumb and know precisely zero about the botanical sciences, but I loved being surrounded by this little capsule of nature. It was hot, humid, and lovely.

Minolta SRT 101 & Fujifilm X-TRA ISO 800

My trip the Huntington Library was also the first time in around two years that I really put my film photography skills through their paces. Looking back through the photos, it's clear I'm rusty - some of the grain is intolerably high, the photos from my Yashica Mat are basically all a wash from camera shake - but I don't really care. It was extremely satisfying to go back to film, and I'm going to keep practicing.

Minolta SRT 101 & Fujifilm X-TRA ISO 800

The Huntington Library is full of treasures, and has some amazing exhibit design to boot. If I lived closer, I would have already shelled out the (considerable) money for a membership. More to come!

Ruminations | Back in the Saddle Again

The blog has been quiet - mostly because I haven't been sure what to do with it. 

Originally it was conceived as a way for me to espouse my passion for natural history, a subject I had zero opportunity to talk about in real life. Now I actually work in a natural history museum and it's 99% of what I talk about in real life. Funny how life works! But because of that, this blog has been collecting dust. 

To be fair, I've always been more of a generalist than a specialist, and I like to dabble in multiple hobbies and disciplines. I should have realized a blog focused solely on one topic was never going to work for me. I like the idea of a natural history blog, but in practice it wasn't going to happen. 

So what am I going to talk about in my little corner of the internet? Natural history - of course! Museums - all the time. Travel, film photography, books - they're all going to show up here at one point or another. This will end up being more of a personal project than anything, and if people decide to join me for the ride, so much the better.

I have film in the mail and a spreadsheet full of books to talk about. Oh, and natural history too. Let's try this again, shall we?

England, 2012; taken on a Canon AE-1 (I think). More of this from now on!