South London Women Artists April 2014 | Page 52

invited by Jane Higginbottom Mary Anning I am interested in Mary Anning (1799-1847) as a fossil collector and scientist but also in the political sense that she was a woman from a working class background, making her achievements even more remarkable for that. She found many of the fossils in the Natural History Museum, and was particularly famous for finding the complete fossilised skeleton of a Plesiosaurus. In 2010 the Royal Society included her in a list of ten British women who have most influenced the history of science. The book Remarkable Creatures by Tracey Chevalier is based on her life. South London Women Artists I’m Inside, Ring The Bell 53