Public Domain Mark
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Credit
Mary Anning (1799-1847). Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Mary Anning (1799-1847)
- Anning, Mary, 1799-1847.
- Date:
- 1823
- Reference:
- MS.8592
- Archives and manuscripts
- Online
About this work
Description
Two autograph letters to Sir Henry Bunbury dated December 1823, regarding her very recent discovery of the plesiosaurus:
1. letter dated 19 December [?1823], describing recent discoveries, including the plesiosaurus.
2. letter dated 26 December 1823, giving further detail about the plesiosaurus and discussing sale of the skeleton; a pen-and-ink sketch of the skeleton is included.
Publication/Creation
1823
Physical description
1 file (2 items)
Contributors
Acquisition note
No acquisition details recorded for item 1. Item 2 purchased from Glendining, London, August 1935 (possibly an error for 1934) (acc.67870).
Biographical note
Mary Anning was born and lived all her life in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Her father Joseph, a cabinet-maker, had developed a sideline in finding and selling the fossils that were to be found in the nearby cliffs, and Mary displayed early on a remarkably fine eye for locating fossils. In 1812 she discovered what was later to be named icthyosaurus, which established her reputation; thereafter she and her family lived by the fossil trade. She followed her discover of the ichthyosaurus with further, more complete specimens, and then by the first complete plesiosaurus, on 10 December 1823. In 1828 she discovered the first pterodactyl. Her discoveries brought her considerable fame and she became something of a tourist attraction in her own right. She died of breast cancer in 1847.
Ownership note
Previously held in the Wellcome Library's Western Manuscripts Autograph Letters Sequence.
Location of duplicates
Copies of MS.8592/2 are mounted on the Wellcome Images website:
L0022370 - sketch with letter
L0031727 - sketch only
Subjects
Where to find it
Location Status Access Closed stores
Permanent link
Identifiers
Accession number
- 67870