"The progressive discovery of the structure of the Ichthyosaurus appears to have occupied about the same number of years as the siege of Troy. Miss Anning figured throughout, was in fact the Helen to the geologists." — George Roberts, HISTORY OF LYME REGIS

In spite of now being acknowledged as one of the most important women in the history of British science, Mary Anning never considered herself a scientist. She was a "fossilist" — a finder and seller of fossils. Born in Lyme Regis in 1799 to a working class family, Anning learned fossil collecting from her father, and after his death those skills were the means by which she kept the family's fossil shop afloat. Largely self-taught, by the early 1820s, Anning "knew more about the skeletons of fossil marine reptiles than anyone in England" (Sharpe 65).

Yet once a specimen sold, Anning's name would often be quickly divorced from its discovery. She herself never published anything about her work, and the family's precarious finances meant she rarely traveled beyond Dorset. Thus, for many years, her titanic contributions to the then-nascent field of paleontology were largely traceable only through the work of other (usually male) geologists, anatomists, and collectors to whom she supplied fossils, most notably Charles Lyell, Richard Owen (who coined the term "dinosaur"), and William Buckland.

The first of these three papers, all presented by anatomist Everard Home to the Royal Society, includes four detailed engravings of the adolescent Anning's 1811/12 discovery (with her older brother) of the fossilized remains of a "Crocodile of enormous size" (a 17-foot Ichthyosaur); though not credited by Home, these are the first fossils discovered by Anning to be published. The second and third papers include three engravings of a second Ichthyosaur specimen, probably also originally supplied by Anning, from collector Lt. Col. Thomas James Birch, a friend and regular customer of the fossilist's. Birch's specimen is shown to exceptional effect by the nearly 40-inch wide folding plate.

A scientific landmark, marking the beginning of Anning's myriad contributions to the fields of geology and paleontology.

Read more: Sharpe, The Fossil Woman, 2020; Torrens, Presidential Address: "Mary Anning (1799-1847) of Lyme," British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 28 No. 3, September 1995; The Royal Society: "Most Influential Women in British Science History," 2010.