Ida Slater: A Collection Researcher in a Male World at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Consuelo Sendino,Erik Ducker,Cynthia Burek

doi:10.1177/155019061801400404

Abstract

Ida Lilian Slater (1881-1969) was one of the first women to work as a geologist in a male world, and although her career was short, she made important contributions to the Early Palaeozoic of Wales and Scotland. Her main work was based on a collection of a group of fossil scypho-zoan polyps gathered not by her but by another significant woman, Elizabeth Anderson, widely known as Mrs. Robert Gray (1831-1924). The majority of this collection is kept at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, and the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. She worked in the former one for two years describing species and comparing specimens for her monograph on British conulariids. Although her work was based not only on this group, she will be remembered by her important contribution to the conulariids through collections. The NHM collection is considered the best in the world in terms of diversity and the second best in its number of specimens, while the Sedgwick Museum has a smaller collection that is still considered the second best in diversity and number of specimens in the United Kingdom. Her work has been cited for more than 100 years and continues to be cited to this day by researchers on this group of fossils.

Highlights

A COLLECTION RESEARCHER IN A MALE WORLD O cited for more than 100 years and continues to be cited to this day by researchers on this group of fossils
Winifred had a very short career working as assistant mistress and headmistress after she had finished her studies at Newnham College in 1899
The school was popular in the art world, with a high proportion of girls attending whose parents were involved in the arts (Spencer 2000) and merchandising (Harris 2007) and where they were treated without any socioeconomic distinction and forbidden to wear jewelry (Pedersen 1979). She continued her education at Newnham College (1900–1904), Cambridge, after gaining a scholarship of £50 in 1900

Summary

Edited by Juilee Decker

As Gertrude Elles (1872–1960) and Slater (1906) recognized, Ludlow is a classic site that had been studied from the time of Murchison (1834a, 1834b, 1834c, 1834d, 1834e, 1839, 1853, 1854, 1857, 1859) and had provided exceptional finds that were placed in the local Ludlow Museum They revised Ludlow’s geology based on the latest geological advances of the early 20th century. While she was an active member of the Sedgwick Club, attending meetings, doing fieldwork, and writing papers, she started to be present at the Geological Society of London, where women were admitted to general meetings from 1904 She alternated this activity with her increasing interest in the stratigraphy and palaeontology of invertebrates of the northwest of England, Wales, and the southwest of Scotland. She realized that the specimens studied by her at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, could not have the structure described by Ruedemann (1896a, 1896b)

Her Main Body of Work

Her Later Career