Delvalle Lowry (22 September 1800 – 23 December 1859, married name Varley) was a British geologist and

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...

and author. Her first book was a

popularization In sociology, popularity is how much a person, idea, place, item or other concept is either liked or accorded status by other people. Liking can be due to reciprocal liking, interpersonal attraction, and similar factors. Social status can be ...

of mineralogy for a general audience, but her two later books were more technically oriented.

Life and work

Delvalle Eliza Rebekah Lowry was born on 22 September 1800 in London, England, to the engraver

Wilson Lowry Wilson Lowry FRS (24 January 1762 – 23 June 1824) was an English engraver. Life He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, the son of Strickland Lowry, a portrait painter. The family settled in Worcester, and Wilson Lowry, as a boy, left home ...

, FRS, and his second wife, Rebekah Delvalle, a mineralogist and scientific lecturer. Through her maternal aunt, Abigail, Lowry's cousin was the economist

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. She was educated at home, growing up exposed to her parents' circle of artistic and scientific friends, such as

John Henry Heuland John Henry Heuland (March 21, 1778 Bayreuth – November 16, 1856 Hastings) was a German born (Johann Heinrich) English mineralogist and dealer. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. His collection is held by the Natural History Mu ...

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John Mawe John Mawe (1764 – 26 October 1829) was a British mineralogist who became known for his practical approach to the discipline. Biography Mawe was born in Derby in 1764 to Samuel Maw(e). His mother died when he was ten and he was raised by his fat ...

, and

Charles Konig Charles Dietrich Eberhard Konig or Karl Dietrich Eberhard König, KH (1774 – 6 September 1851) was a German naturalist. He was born in Brunswick and educated at Göttingen. He came to England at the end of 1800 to organize the collection ...

, to name just those mentioned in the acknowledgements of her first book, ''Conversations on Mineralogy'', published in 1822. Lowry and her father engraved the illustrations for the book from original sketches. Presented in the popular format of a conversation between two (female) students and their instructor, the book was generally well-received and went through three editions in Britain and an American edition. Lowry appears to have been mostly concerned with conveying her information clearly to those with a bare knowledge of mineralogy and her prose has been criticized for its stilted dialogue and lack of character development. It was notable, however, for avoiding any religious references common at that time. Lowry married the much older painter and

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John Varley in 1825 and they did not have any children. Varley was spendthrift by nature and had very little business sense; he died of a kidney infection hiding from his creditors in 1842. She was awarded a pension from the

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after his death. Lowry subsequently published two books using her married name, ''The Engineer's Manual of Mineralogy and Geology'' in 1846 and ''Rudimentary Geology'' in 1848. ''The Engineer's Manual'' was intended for professionals in the field and ''Rudimentary Geology'' was published by John Weale in his 'Rudimentary Series' of scientific books. It went through at least four editions, the last two of which were entitled ''Rudimentary Treatise on Mineralogy'' and included a section by the American geologist James Dana. Lowry died in London on 23 December 1859.Larsen, pp. 110–11

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowry, Delvalle 1800 births 1859 deaths English mineralogists Scientists from London