Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison. The real story behind these 2 amazing women in history.
In the movie entitled, Ammonite, Mary Anning is having a forbidden love affair
with a young woman named Charlotte Murchison. Yet, is this true?. Were they really lovers?
This video explores the truth of the relationship between Mary Anning,
and Charlotte Murchison. Let's start with, Mary Anning.
Mary was born and lived her whole life in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. She made her living as
a fossil hunter and had gained some notoriety (as much as women were credited in those days)
as a person who had uncovered some truly amazing fossil specimens.
In fact, she unearthed the fossilized skull of an Ichthyosaur, or "fish lizard."
(but I go into that more in another video I made on Mary Anning's life accomplishments.)
Please check it out. I left a link in the description below.
But let me get back to Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison.
In 1825, Charlotte did accompany her husband, Sir Roderick Murchison, to Lyme Regis.
In the movie, it is made out to be that Charlotte is not all that interested in
Mary as an accomplished paleontologist; and that she is a depressed woman who needs looking after.
But the truth is that while in Lyme Regis, Charlotte spent her time sketching the cliffs
along the coast and collecting Jurassic fossil specimens from the Dorset beaches.
She also collected with and became a very good friend of
Mary Anning through their shared pursuits.
In the 1800's, people of wealth often took an interest in science as a means to fill
their spare time and one of the popular sciences, at that time, was geology.
Men controlled who could be officially recognized as a scientist based upon who
they did or did not allow membership in scientific societies; but women were free to take part in
collecting fossils and mineral specimens and they were allowed to attend lectures.
All of which both Mary and Charlotte did.
Mary gathered and recorded details about her finds as a means to making a living
whereas Charlotte was born of wealth and privilege. So for her, it was a sort of hobby.
Still Charlotte Murchison’s contributions to geology were
also significant and just as overlooked as Mary's.
In fact, it is pretty well documented that Charlotte was the one
who got her husband interested in the field of science.
It was Charlotte who studied mineralogy and introduced her new husband,
who was an army officer, to the world of minerals, rocks and fossils.
She encouraged her husband to pursue scientific endeavors so much so
that he became a well-regarded figure in the geology world.
In addition to serving as president of the Geological Society for several years,
Sir Roderick Murchison is known for his groundbreaking work
identifying a sequence of rocks discovered near the border between Wales and England.
So, in truth, Charlotte and Mary's friendship grew based upon their shared interest in fossils
and the budding science of paleontology.
They became friends and corresponded by mail frequently and there was nothing in any of
the letters to suggest anything more than a close friendship between the two women.
Still, is this enough to suggest that they were lovers?
Barbara Anning, one of Mary Anning's family members, said this in The Telegraph in 2019.
“I do not believe there is any evidence to back up portraying her as a gay woman.
Do the filmmakers have to resort to using unconfirmed aspects to somebody’s sexuality
to make an already remarkable story sensational? This adds nothing to her story."
It is a fact that the director and writer of the film,
Francis Lee admitted on Twitter after the release of the film,
that there is no evidence supporting that Mary and Charlotte were anything more than good friends.
The truth is that all we know for sure is that Mary remained unmarried for the course of her
life and that she and Charlotte wrote letters to each other until Mary's death in 1847.
While Charlotte remained married to Sir Roderick until her death in 1869.
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Fierce & Feisty Women In History