Ann Greenly

Annie Greenly

Born Ann Barnard on 8 June 1852 in Bath, as the fourth of the five daughters of John Barnard, a dispensing chemist. She is known for her geological work assisting husband Edward Greenly in his surveying of Scotland and Wales, as well as an accomplished artist and animal rights’ representative. She died of heart failure on 1 March 1927, at the age of 75. The "Annie Greenly Fund" for detailed geological mapping was established in her honour by the Geological Society of London.

• Annie Greenly as a young woman.
  Annie Greenly as a young woman.
• Annie Greenly at age ...
  Annie Greenly at age ...

Personal Life

Much of what we know about Annie Greenly comes from the autobiographic work of her husband. Annie grew up in Bath and Bristol in a liberal evangelical household. Her first introduction to geology came at age 11 when she witnessed the 6 October 1863 earthquake with epicentre near Hereford. She first met her future husband Edward Greenly in 1875 in Bristol. Their families were acquainted and encouraged the growing friendship between the two, which was built on philosophical/poetic exchanges as well as Edward’s scientific studies. Annie often helped the then chemistry student with experiments in his home laboratory. When pressed by Edward’s parents to either become engaged or break off the relationship, they separated and lost all contact for 11 years. Edward finally approached her again in 1890, and they soon got engaged and married in 26 September 1891. The couple had no children. Annie was blind in one eye from an early age. Due to worries for his wife’s health Edward Greenly retired from the Geological Survey in 1895, and the couple subsequently moved to Anglesey where they continued their geological surveying and mapping relying on a private income. Despite her obvious interest in geology she stressed herself: “I am not a scholar”. On top of her scientific role, Annie Greenly was a contralto singer and pianist, and a long-standing member of her local branch of the North Wales RSPCA. Edward Greenly (and with him Annie to a lesser extent) was a mystic who shifted from Evangelicalism to pantheistic religion and Buddhism. He strongly believed to be reunited with his wife, who he survived by almost a quarter of a century, in an afterlife.

Geological Career

Annie immediately became fully involved in her husband’s geological work. “We have agreed that I am not to be ignorant of your subject… I can begin by reading. Put into our luggage some lucid elementary books.” Subsequently, Annie worked as Edward’s field assistant who was now surveying for the Scottish Geological Survey. She took control of logistics, arranging lodgings and facilities, prepared powdered mineral specimens, and extensively proof-read and edited his writing. Edward reflects on her value as assistant in one aspect in particular: “More than one geologist […] has been killed while examining railway cuttings. When the author was examining cuttings in Anglesey, Annie Greenly always came with him as train-watcher and with her at the top of the bank he was able to concentrate on the geology.” More than providing logistical and moral support, however, Annie revolutionised her husband’s surveying technique early on. She encouraged him to follow the exemplary lead of his colleague Charles T. Clough’s in all but one respect: “Let Clough be your model in precision, but do not follow him in style. Found your style on nature’s curves. Watch these wherever you can and where you cannot see them, feel them. To be true, a map must be beautiful.” Edward claimed that Annie was “the initial source of [his] inspiration”. Thus her sense of clarity and beauty was critical in developing her husband’s style of mapping, including the green line method for which Edward Greenly is famous until today. In particular, Annie was instrumental for Greenly’s map of Anglesey. She takes particular credit for the index to the Anglesey memoir which is now held in the National Museum of Wales. Edward Greenly documents her continuous support: “some sheets she pronounced to be hopeless and these […] she rewrote altogether…we worked on opposite sides of the table, I writing, she doctoring.” She was valued for her persistence and logic. Annie was meticulous in the reading and editing of her husband’s manuscripts, finishing a final piece of work only a week before her death.

Women’s rights

Together with her husband, Annie regularly attended the annual meetings of the Geological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and other conferences and meetings. In 1903, she instigated the first ever female participation in the Conference Dinner, which extended to other female geologists such as Gertrude Elles and Lady Teall. However, in her husband’s words, Annie Greenly did not like to be “controversial”. She did not make much of the suffrage movement. Edward paraphrases her opinion on Feminism “Our standards of achievement are not wide enough: we judge too much by the conspicuous. Now while conspicuous achievement is mainly and characteristically masculine, inconspicuous achievement is mainly and characteristically feminine. Consequently, our conventional standard shuts out from its due meed of honour half of the human race. Thus, by an unexpected paradox, the fundamental error of Feminism is not in rejection of conventional standards, but in blind acceptance of them. Able to conceive only of the conspicuous, it vainly dreams of competition between the sexes in that field.”

Burek, Cynthia V. (2014), The contribution of women to Welsh geological research and education up to 1920, Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 125 (2014) 480–492.