Hello and welcome to Home School History, I m Greg Jenner, the historian behind TV s horrible histories, and the host of the BBC podcast You re Dead to Me.
I m here to deliver a snappy history lesson to entertain and educate the whole family.
Who says that homeschooling can t be fun?
Today we are journeying to the 19th century to meet an extraordinary woman who was truly ahead of her time.
Known as the princess of palaeontology and the greatest fossil hunter who ever lived, we're learning about Mary Anning.
Mary Anning entered history with a bang in 1799 in a place called Lime Regis on the south -west coast of England and I mean a literal bang.
When she was just one year old she was struck by lightning.
Other people sadly died but Mary miraculously survived, which led some people in the town to that she had super powers, kind of like The Flash.
Mary's parents were called Richard and also Mary and they weren't a very posh family at all.
Tragically they had 10 children but only young Mary and her brother Joseph survived.
Richard was a respectable cabinet maker.
As well as being quite poor the Anning family had unusual religious beliefs for the time, which meant that other people were quite suspicious of them.
Richard Anning strongly believed that poor people should have better rights and a good education.
So when he wasn't building fancy furniture, he was involved in protests against food shortages.
He was the Marcus Rashford of carpentry.
I don't want this to be the end of it, you know.
Even though she was quite poor and was a girl, young Mary's parents made sure that she had an education.
And soon, she became interested in geology and paleontology, which is the study of rocks and fossils from tens or hundreds of millions of years ago.
This was a nice hobby to have in Lyme Regis because fossils were absolutely everywhere.
You couldn't go for a walk on the beach without tripping over crusty remains of a prehistoric sea snail.
Ow, that hurts! Careful!
To make some extra cash Mary's dad Richard started collecting fossils that the family could sell to tourists.
But collecting fossils was risky as the cliffs at Lime Regis often collapsed and one day they came down right on top of poor Richard who then caught a nasty infection called tuberculosis when he was recovering and he died.
Mary was only 11 years old when she lost her dad.
Now her dad had been the main money earner which was very worrying for the family but their luck was about to turn.
When she was just 12 her brother Joseph found a huge skull but he was too busy to dig it up because he had a job so Mary took charge.
She carefully dug up a skeleton of an Ichthyosaur which is a prehistoric sea reptile that looks a bit like a dolphin.
It was the first ichthyosaur skeleton ever found, so museums and important fossil collectors got really excited.
Suddenly Mary knew how she could earn a living.
Over the next few years Mary found absolutely bucket loads of spectacular fossils, including a plesiosaur, which has been described as like a long -necked four -flippered sea dragon.
By the time she was age 24 Mary's plesiosaur discovery made her properly famous in the scientific community, but she and her family still weren't rich and despite making these rare and remarkable discoveries people were still not taking Mary seriously.
Mainly because she was a woman and also because she wasn't from a posh family.
Now remember when she was a baby she'd survived being hit by a lightning bolt.
Well the year after she found the police, there was a massive hurricane in Lyme Regis.
Lots of people died and a big chunk of Mary's house was washed away.
Luckily she survived and she also survived a landslide in 1833.
And another time she was nearly drowned.
And there was another time she was nearly crushed in a road traffic accident.
I mean you could say that Mary was lucky for surviving all these near misses, although she probably didn't see it that way because, unfortunately, she lost her loyal dog, Trey, in the landslide.
But don't worry. Remember Mary's impressive plesiosaur, the sea dragon?
Well, in 1823, it caught the attention of the very important French paleontologist Georges Cuvier, who was a bit of a hashtag influencer.
He thought it was fake at first, but when he realized she was a legit fossil boffin, he mentioned her in his public writings and that meant that other people also started to think of her more seriously.
By selling her fossils Mary Anning was able to set up a little shop called Anning's Fossil Depot in a nice part of town.
Now Mary wasn't just a good digger, she was very knowledgeable about animal anatomy.
She dissected animals to find out how their bodies worked and she read all the scientific research and she even copied out articles by hand.
Sadly, due to sexism and class snobbery nobody would let Mary publish articles of her own.
Collectors and museums bought her fossils from her but then they took all the credit for describing them.
But there is one official article in Mary's name, it's a letter she sent to the Magazine of Natural History in 1839 to tell them that one of their publications was wrong!
Today her letters are really valuable.
One letter written in 1829 to the famous paleontologist William Buckland recently sold at auction for a whopping one hundred thousand pounds and that letter was about a coprolite which is a fossilised poo.
Now that's one letter you don't want written on scented notepaper.
We also have Mary's commonplace book which is a bit like a scrapbook diary where she wrote down her favourite song lyrics, poems, prayers and quotations.
Now this book gives us an idea of what Mary was like in person.
But what did she look like?
Well, there is an official portrait of Mary where she's all dressed up rather fancy next to her trusty dog, Trey.
But it probably isn't very reliable and it tried to make her look much fancier than she really was, sort of like a posh lady filter on Snapchat.
Let me take a selfie!
In reality, Mary was probably physically very fit and tanned from being outdoors all the time doing her fossil hunting.
Now, we do have a possible sketch of her by Mary's geologist friend, Henry de la Besshe.
We're not certain if it is her, but the person is wearing a plaid skirt, a dark cape, and is carrying a geological hammer.
What's especially interesting is that if it is her, she wasn't wearing a bonnet, she was wearing a top hat, which was only for men.
So Mary was tough, clever, and had made many groundbreaking discoveries.
So surely the posh boys of science would allow her into their fancy clubs right?
WRONG! She was still refused membership to the Geological Society of London, but her posh lady friends like the geologist Charlotte Murchison persuaded the snobby lads to at least let women sit in on the lectures, so I guess that's something.
Being excluded did hurt Mary's feelings, she once said, The world has used me so unkindly, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone.
Oh, Mary! Despite her talent, Mary Anning didn't get to see her work in print or get to join any fancy societies, but she did get to make one big trip to London to stay with her friend Charlotte Murchison and to see her fossils on display at the biggest museum in the country.
That must have been a grand adventure!
And in 1844, nearly two decades after opening Anning's fossil depot, Anning was visited by the King of Saxony!
Oooh! Hello! Mary sold him a fossil and informed him that she was a celebrity well -known throughout Europe.
Oh, get you Mary Anning!
Rubbing shoulders with proper royalty!
During her career Mary never found any land dinosaurs, but she discovered winged pterosaurs, 30 new species of prehistoric fish, many ammonites, which are like mega ancient sea snails, and lots of near -complete examples of iconic extinct marine reptiles.
What an amazing list!
Mary was clever, courageous and determined.
She took no nonsense, and some men found her a bit surly, sarcastic and blunt.
The man who dubbed her the Princess of Palaeontology, also said she expressed herself like a man, which presumably meant she was confident and a bit rude.
But Mary was also generous and kind -hearted.
She remained very religious, and didn't marry or have children, but she had a life filled with plenty of love, and was really admired by those who knew her.
She was part of a friendship network of brainy women who loved geology and fossils, and her friend Elizabeth Philpott joined her fossil hunting nearly every day.
What a cool friendship!
I'll be there for you Rich and posh Elizabeth gathered a very impressive collection of her own and even opened her own mini museum in her house in Lyme Regis.
But Mary couldn't afford to do this because she needed to sell her best fossils in order to support her and her family.
Sadly Mary died in March 1847, possibly from breast cancer, and she was only 47 years old.
Mary had wanted great recognition for her achievements in her lifetime but outside of her friendships she really didn't get it.
But good news, she has it in spades now.
Yes, after her death people started to recognize Mary's scientific achievements.
In 1865 even famous Charles Dickens, remember him from series 1, included an article about her in his magazine.
Some people also think she was the inspiration for the tongue twister She sells Seashells by the Seashore, though there's not much evidence to back that up.
In 2010, the Royal Society of Science named Mary as one of the most influential British women in the history of science.
And it gets better!
In 2015, she had a really cool fossil named after her – the Ichthyosaurus Anning guy, the only one of its kind ever found and found of course by Mary herself.
And soon, thanks to a campaign by a young lady called Evie, Mary Anning will have her own statue in Lyme Regis paid for by a huge crowd -funder campaign.
In fact, let's hear from Evie – Mary Anning rocks!
Nice one Evie, I agree.
And that brings us to the end of our expedition with Mary Anning.
So now, it's time for the quiz.
We have five questions.
Are you ready? Okay, here we go.
Question 1. What happened to Mary when she was one year old, leading some people to think she had superpowers?
Question 2. What was the name of Mary's beloved dog?
Question 3. How old was Mary when she dug up the first complete Ichthyosaurus skeleton?
Question 4. What was Mary Anning's shop called?
And question five, who was Mary's wealthy friend who joined her fossil hunting pretty much every day?
Okay, let's do the answers!
The answer to question one, when she was a baby she was struck by lightning.
The answer to question two, Mary's beloved dog was Trey.
The answer to question three, Mary was twelve when she found her first Ictheosaurus.
The answer to question four, Mary's shop was called Anning's Fossil Depot.
And the answer to question five, Mary's fossil hunting friend was Elizabeth Philpot.
How did you do? If you didn't get all five, that's okay, why not listen to a different episode from series one or two?
Hopefully you're now a Mary Anning Marvel.
Tune in next time for some more Home School History, and make sure to subscribe to the podcast on BBC Sounds so you never miss an episode.
Thank you for listening.
Take care and goodbye.
Homeschool History was a production by the Athletic for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
The script was by Gaby Hutchison -Crouch, Hannah McKenzie, Emma Negoose and me.
The producer was Abbie Patterson, and the historical adviser was Dr Rebecca Ragsikes.
Hello, me again! Yes, Greg, in case you're not aware.
Just want to let you know that if you're not done with history, well, good news!
series three of Radio 4's top comedy history podcast You're Dead to Me is now in full swing that's when you find yourself in the pocket of big Asclepius we like to learn and laugh about the past by pairing up a top historian with a top comedian that is hangry at a new level, isn't it?
so far in this series we've met the Irish pirate queen Grania O 'Malley, explored the strange world of ancient Greek and Roman medicine, and discovered the dramatic family life of the Borgias all I know about the Borgias is from Assassin's Creed II So make sure you've subscribed to You're Dead To Me on BBC Sounds.
