Marian Sarah Ogilvie Farquharson

Marian Sarah Ogilvie Farquharson (born Ridley ; born July 2, 1846 in Privet , Northamptonshire , † April 20, 1912 in Nice ) was a British author, botanist and microscopist. She was the leader of a movement that fought for equal eligibility for women in British learned societies. Ogilvie Farquharson was elected the first woman to the Royal Microscopical Society in 1885. It is thanks to their commitment that the first women were accepted into the Linnean Society of London in 1904 . She herself was the only one of the proposed candidates to fail and was only elected to the Linnean Society of London four years later.

Live and act

Marian Sarah Ogilvie Farquharson, nee Ridley, was the eldest daughter of Reverend J. Nicholas Ridley of Hollington , Hampshire . She was trained at home and took classes in London. The later Mrs. Ogilvie Farquharson became interested in the native flora and in 1881 published a pocket guide on British ferns . On October 29, 1881, she became a member of the Epping Forest and County of Essex Naturalists' Field Club . After her marriage to Robert F. Ogilvie Farquharson in 1883, she moved to Haughton near Aberdeen . Ogilvie Farquharson became a member of the Alford Field Club and Scientific Society in Alford and the East of Scotland Union of Naturalists' Societies . In 1885, a paper on the distinguishing features of British mosses was published in the journal of the British Association for the Advancement of Science . As the first woman, Ogilvie Farquharson was elected to the Royal Microscopical Society on April 8, 1885 . As a woman, however, she was not allowed to take part in the meetings or votes of the society.

Ogilvie Farquharson was the founder and president of the Scottish Association for Promotion of Women's Public Work and became the leader of a movement that advocated equal eligibility for women in learned societies. At an international conference in Paris in 1890 she gave a speech entitled The Position of Women in Science , at an exhibition in Glasgow in 1901 she gave a lecture on the subject of On the Past and Future Work of Women .

In a request dated April 18, 1900, Ogilvie Farquharson first turned to the President and Council of the Linnean Society of London , requesting that sufficiently qualified women should be elected to join the society and that they should also participate must be allowed at the meetings of society. The request was refused on the grounds that only members of the Society were allowed to submit such requests. At the meeting of the society on June 7, 1900, she had her request presented again by the former President of the Linnean Society of London, John Lubbock . The council adjourned its decision to the next meeting on June 28th, noting that the proposal could not be approved because the charter did not allow women to be accepted. The following November, University College Cork Professor of Natural History Marcus Manuel Hartog (1851-1924) wrote a letter to the Council advocating the admission of women and urging that the interpretation of the Charter on this point be clarified. The council then hired a lawyer who concluded that the current charter prevented the admission of women.

In April 1901, Ogilvie Farquharson renewed their concerns with the help of council member Frederick DuCane Godman and the zoological secretary Thomas George Bond Howes (1853-1905). The request went unanswered. At the council meeting on November 7, 1901, with the help of the botany professor and council member Joseph Reynolds Green (1848–1914), she presented again: A decision was postponed indefinitely. On December 19, Green repeated the request, finding that a significant number of members would support the cause. The council requested evidence to support this claim from Greens. By the next meeting in January 1902, Green was able to present enough supporter signatures. In March 1902 a circular was sent out to the 740 members asking whether they should speak out for or against the admission of women. Of the responding members of the Linnean Society of London, 301 were for and 126 against the admission of women into society. 313 members did not answer.

On January 15, 1903, under the direction of the treasurer Frank Crisp (1843-1919), who represented the sick President Sydney Howard Vines (1849-1934), an extraordinary meeting took place to discuss additions and changes to the current charter. Among them was the addition “no difference in sex”, which was voted on separately. 54 members voted for this addition, 17 voted against. At the end of 1903 the petition for the changes was submitted. The new charter was finally granted on April 8, 1904. With the adoption of the new statutes based on this on November 3, 1904, the way was clear for the admission of women to the Linnean Society of London.

First admission of women to the Linnean Society of London . Painting from 1905 by James Sant (1820–1916). Lilian Jane Veley signs the recording book.

On November 17, 1904, in addition to a few men, the following 16 women were proposed for admission to the Linnean Society of London:

• Her Grace Mary du Caurroy Russell, Duchess of Bedford (1865–1937)
• Miss Margaret Benson
• Mrs. Catherine Crisp, wife of the treasurer
• Miss Alice Laura Embleton
• Mrs. Grace Coleridge Frankland, FRMS, b. Toynbee (1858-1946)
• Mrs. Maria Matilda Ogilvie Gordon (1864–1939)
• Miss Gulielma Lister (1860-1949)
• Miss Ethel Sargant (1863-1918)
• Miss Sarah Marianne Silver (married Sinclair)
• Mrs. Constance Percy Sladen, widow of the former zoological secretary
• Miss Annie Lorrain Smith (1854-1937)
• Mrs. Mary Anne Stebbing, wife of the zoological secretary
• Miss Emma Louisa Turner (1866-1940)
• Mrs. Lilian Jane Veley (* 1861)
• Miss Ellen Ann Willmott
• Mrs. Marian Sarah Ogilvie Farquharson, FRMS

With the exception of Ogilvie Farquharson, all proposed women were elected on December 15, 1904 and signed on January 19, 1905 in the register of the Linnean Society of London.

Ogilvie Farquharson was proposed again for membership in the Linnean Society of London on February 6, 1908, and was finally elected on March 5, 1908.

Fonts (selection)

• Marian S. Ridley: A Pocket Guide to British Ferns . David Bogue, London 1881 ( online ).

proof

literature

• Benjamin Daydon Jackson : [Obituary]: In: Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 124, 1912, pp. 45-46 ( online ).
• Andrew Thomas Gage, William Thomas Stearn : A Bicentenary History of the Linnean Society of London . Academic Press, 1988, ISBN 0-12-273150-6 , pp. 89-93.
• Catharine MC Haines: International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950 . ABC-CLIO, 2001, ISBN 1-57607-090-5 , p. 95.
• John Marsden: One Hundred Years Ago - the admission of ladies . In: Barry Leadbeater: Irene Manton: A Biography (1904–1988) . In: The Linnean . Special Issue, Number 5, The Linnean Society of London, 2004, pp. 95-96 ( PDF ).
• Who Was Who. A Companion To “Who's Who” containing the Biographies of those who died during the Period 1897-1916 . London 1920, p. 237 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Transactions of the Essex Field Club . Volume 2, p. XXIX ( online ).
2. ^ Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 115, London 1903, pp. 4-5 ( online ).
3. ^ Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 116, London 1904, p. 13 ( online )
4. ^ Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 117, London 1904, pp. 1–2 ( online )
5. ^ Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 117, London 1904, p. 3 ( online ).
6. ^ Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 117, London 1904, p. 5 ( online ).
7. ^ Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 117, London 1904, p. 5 ( online ).
8. ^ Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 120, London 1908, p. 8 ( online ).
9. ^ Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 120, London 1908, p. 10 ( online ).