Eleanor Mary Reid (born Eleanor Mary Wynne Edwards) (1860–1953) was a British
palaeobotanist
Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...
. Throughout her life she worked closely with her husband,
Clement Reid, a trained botanist and geologist, and later worked alongside
Marjorie Chandler.
Early life and education
Eleanor Mary Wynne Edwards was born on 13 November 1860 in
Denbigh
Denbigh (; cy, Dinbych; ) is a market town and a community in Denbighshire, Wales. Formerly, the county town, the Welsh name translates to "Little Fortress"; a reference to its historic castle. Denbigh lies near the Clwydian Hills.
History
...
to parents John and Maria Wynne Edwards. She attended the
Westfield College
Westfield College was a small college situated in Hampstead, London, from 1882 to 1989. It was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees from its opening. The college originally admitted only women as students and ...
in London, England and earned her BSc in 1892. Reid wasn't originally educated in
paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
or
botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
, she taught physics and maths at the prestigious
Cheltenham Ladies College
Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to pr ...
.
[Mary R. S. Creese, "Reid , Eleanor Mary (1860–1953)", '']Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 201
accessed 6 October 2015
/ref> It was through her husband, Clement Reid, an experienced botanist and paleontologist, where her interest in prehistoric plant life arose.
She married Clement Reid in 1897 and it was through their collaboration in paleobotany that she became one of the leading female scholars of geology.
Career
Reid became interested in the fossilized remains of plants which she studied with her husband Clement Reid. They worked to establish that plants could be reliably identified and were able to publish their findings together. Their first book was published in 1899, ''The Origin of the British Flora'', which focused on paleobotany. He mentioned that she helped in gathering nearly 100 samples from deposit near West Wittering
West Wittering is a village and civil parish situated on the Manhood Peninsula in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies near the mouth of Chichester Harbour on the B2179 road southwest of Chichester close to the border with Ha ...
. It was the two of them who were credited with establishing that "flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''.
E ...
s could be reliably reconstructed from sources rich in fossil fruiting organs". Their second book, ''The Fossil Flora of Tegelen-sur-Meuse, near Venloo, in the Province of Limburg'' was published in 1907 and is focused on paleobotany, as well as the Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
geological timescale. The last book they published together was in 1915—a year before the death of her husband Clement Reid— titled, ''The Pliocene Floras of the Dutch-Prussian Border'', which targets the topics of both paleobotany as well as the Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58[Milford-on-Sea
Milford on Sea, often hyphenated, is a large village or small town and a civil parish on the Hampshire coast. The parish had a population of 4,660 at the 2011 census and is centred about south of Lymington. Tourism and businesses for quite pr ...](_blank)
became Reid's laboratory and the base from which she worked. After earning money from the Geological Society's Murchison fund in 1919[Geological Society]
Retrieved 6 October 2015 she published her monograph on Pliocene floras in 1920.[ She was one of four women who became fellows of the Geological Society that year] and she established a new lifelong scientific partnership and friendship with Marjorie Chandler who had obtained a first class degree in the natural sciences at Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
the year before.[ Chandler acted as Reid's assistant for the next 40 years.
Chandler and Reid researched pre-historic plants by using the collection of the ]British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. After six years they published a two-part volume of books focusing on paleobotany. Their first book, '' Catalogue of Cenozoic Plants in the Department of Geology, volume 1. The Bembridge Flora'', was published in 1926. This was an extensive description of Cenozoic Plants and particularly those growing historically on the Isle of Wight. The second volume of their series, '' The London Clay Flora'' was published in 1933. In both of these volumes it was Reid who used their findings to describe the changing climatic conditions in the Tertiary period
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
evidenced by the changing plants seen in minerals of different ages. The changing shape and construction of seeds and fruits through the ages gave new evidence of the evolutionary changes that takes place within plants. Reid and Chandler's studies showed that the land now known as London had at one time been part of a tropical forest.[ Reid devised many new techniques for extracting the samples from material such as peat.]
Awards and achievements
Reid was awarded the Lyell Medal
The Lyell Medal is a prestigious annual scientific medal given by the Geological Society of London, equal in status to the Murchison Medal. This medal is awarded based on one Earth Scientist's exceptional contribution of research to the scientific ...
in 1936, for her accomplishments in the findings of new geological information and innovative techniques.
Reid gratefully received the Murchison Fund
The Murchison Fund is an award given by the Geological Society of London to researchers under the age of 40 who have contributed substantially to the study of hard rock and tectonic geology. It is named in honour of Prof. Roderick Impey Murchison. ...
in 1919, she published her monograph on ''Pliocene floras'' in 1920,[ only a year later being accepted as a Fellow to the ]Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows.
Fe ...
. Reid was accepted as a well known, knowledgeable geologist and became acquainted with many other geologists who recognized for their work within the society who would later be split into smaller groups, separated according to specific interest.
Retirement and death
Once retired, Reid found more time to serve the church and go into schools. She read the work of travel writers and even cycled into her eighties.
Reid died on 28 September 1953 from cerebral thrombosis
A thrombus (plural thrombi), colloquially called a blood clot, is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis. There are two components to a thrombus: aggregated platelets and red blood cells that form a plug, and a mesh of c ...
, in Milford on Sea
Milford on Sea, often hyphenated, is a large village or small town and a civil parish on the Hampshire coast. The parish had a population of 4,660 at the 2011 census and is centred about south of Lymington. Tourism and businesses for quite pr ...
, Hampshire.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Eleanor Mary
1860 births
1953 deaths
People from Denbigh
20th-century British botanists
Paleobotanists
Women paleontologists
British women scientists
Cheltenham Ladies' College faculty
Lyell Medal winners