British women who contributed to research in the geological sciences in the nineteenth century *

British women who contributed to research in geology in the nineteenth century are grouped into two categories, the privately-educated ‘amateurs’ and the women with university training. In the ‘amateur’ category are included the women observers, collectors and classifiers of the naturalist tradition, who were active throughout most of the century and beyond. Members of the second group appeared in increasing numbers from the 1880s onwards. This essay discusses the contributions of some of the earlier workers and examines the careers and the achievements of those in the later group who were especially outstanding, despite their somewhat marginal status in the scientific community. Special factors leading to the remarkable prominence of British women in late nineteenth-century geology are discussed and comparisons are drawn with the situation of contemporary women geologists in Russia and the USA. An appendix provides statistical data (covering nineteenth-century European and North American publications) showing that the special prominence of British women geologists among their women contemporaries was not simply a reflection of an overall predominance of the British in the geological sciences.