People

Charlotte Hugonin Murchison

1788 - 1869

Charlotte Hugonin Murchison was an English geologist, illustrator, and collector of fossils. She fought successfully for female geology students to attend Kings College. She married Roderick Murchison in 1815, after a brief courtship. It was her influence that turned him toward geology, and her fortune that allowed him to do field work, in which she joined him. She also made illustrations for his books. The Murchisons were friends with the Lyells, traveling together on geological excursions. At Lyme Regis, Charlotte went fossil hunting with a woman on the opposite end of the scale socially, but who was highly knowledgeable about fossils, Mary Anning. Ammonites murchisonae was named after Charlotte, not Roderick.

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