Eliza Maria, Lady Gordon-Cumming ( Campbell; 1795 - 21 April 1842) was a Scottish aristocrat,

horticulturalist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

palaeontologist 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 ...

and scientific illustrator. Lady Cumming collected and studied Devonian fish fossils from the

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

Morayshire Moray; ( gd, Moireibh ) or Morayshire, called Elginshire until 1919, is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland, bordering Nairnshire to the west, Inverness-shire to the south, and Banffshire to the east. It ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. She amassed a large and well-known collection which she illustrated, along with her daughter Lady Anne Seymour. Lady Cumming worked with other palaeontologists and geologists of the time including Louis Agassiz,

William Buckland William Buckland DD, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and palaeontologist. Buckland wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named ' ...

and Roderick Murchison.

Biography

Early life

Lady Cumming was born Eliza Maria Campbell in 1795 in

Inveraray Inveraray ( or ; gd, Inbhir Aora meaning "mouth of the Aray") is a town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is on the western shore of Loch Fyne, near its head, and on the A83 road. It is a former royal burgh, the traditional county town of Arg ...

to Lady Charlotte Campbell (later Lady Charlotte Bury) and Colonel John Campbell. Her mother was a diarist and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

and father a soldier and politician.

Palaeontological research

Lady Cumming was a skilled painter and keen horticulturalist who took up the study of the fossils on her Altyre estate near the Moray Firth around 1839. She collected fossils and instructed workers in the quarries on the estate to bring her any they found. She collected a large number of specimens of fossil fish from the

Devonian period The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, w ...

and began a correspondence with the most famous geologists of the time; Louis Agassiz,

and Roderick Murchison all visited her collection in Scotland. She sent illustrations, letters and specimens around Europe, and intended to publish her illustrations and theories on how these fish would have appeared in life. Some of these illustrations survive in the archives of the Geological Society. Some of her ideas about how the fossil remains should be interpreted were later discredited as more fossil evidence came to light, but her illustrations were highly respected. Her work was praised by

Hugh Miller Hugh Miller (10 October 1802 – 23/24 December 1856) was a self-taught Scottish geologist and writer, folklorist and an evangelical Christian. Life and work Miller was born in Cromarty, the first of three children of Harriet Wright ('' ...

, and

...collected these remains and distributed them amongst geologists with the greatest liberality. Lady Cumming had studied the remains with great care, and prepared a series of drawings of all the most perfect specimens with a precision of detail and artistic talent, which few naturalists can hope to attain"

After his visit to Altyre, Agassiz named a species ''

Cheirolepis cummingae ''Cheirolepis'' (from el, χείρ , 'hand' and el, λεπίς 'scale') is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish that lived in the Devonian period of Europe and North America. It is the only genus yet known within the family Cheirolepidae and t ...

'' (also sometimes spelled ''cummingii'') in honour of Cumming. This species name was later discovered to be a synonym of ''Cheirolepis trialli.'' Many of the fossils in Cumming's collection were personally identified by Agassiz, and the collection is now held by the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

, the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

, London, and the University of Neuchatel.

Marriage and children

Lady Cumming married Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming of Altyre, 2nd Baronet in 1815. They had 13 children including * Sir Alexander Penrose Gordon-Cumming, 3rd Baronet (1816–1866) *

Roualeyn George Gordon-Cumming Roualeyn George Gordon-Cumming (March 15, 1820 – March 24, 1866) was a Scottish traveller and sportsman, known as the " lion hunter". He was the second son of Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming, 2nd Baronet and Lady Eliza Maria Gordon-Cumming ...

(15 March 1820 – 24 March 1866) traveller, sportsman and lion hunter * Francis Hastings Toone Gordon-Cumming (1842-1883) * Anne Seymour Conway Baker Cresswell (d. 1858) * Mary Elizabeth Gordon-Cumming * Henry Gordon-Cumming (b. 1822) * John Randolph Gordon-Cumming (1826-1866) * William Gordon Gordon-Cumming (1829-1898) * Adelaide Eliza Gordon-Cumming (d.1870) * Alice Henrietta Gordon-Cumming (d. 1859) * Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming (26 May 1837 – 4 September 1924) travel writer and painter * Eleanora Gordon-Cumming (b. 1842 d. 1889)

Death

During her 13th pregnancy Cumming was impatient to get back to her studies, writing to Roderick Murchison "I am breathless to be at work again." However, she died on 21 April 1842 due to complications following the birth.

Biography

Early life

Palaeontological research

Marriage and children

Death

See also

References

Further reading