13 inspiring stories from the Women in Science Tour

Our science and conservation teams play an important role in caring for the collections, but their work is often carried out behind the scenes.

On this tour, you’ll find out about bringing conservation and science to the public, and some of the great team behind bringing Hope the blue whale to Hintze Hall including: Lorraine Cornish, Arianna Bernucci, Cheryl Lynn, Lu Allington-Jones and Natalie Cooper.

Nadine Gabriel has always been interested in rocks and used to collect them when she was a young child. In 2013, Nadine visited the Natural History Museum for the first time and decided she wanted to work here. As a young scientist, she’s found new and alternative ways to engage people with science and specimens.

A trip to the zoo at three years old sparked Anne Innis Dagg’s imagination and now she’s considered by many to be ‘the bible of all things giraffe-related’.

Beginning her career in the 1960s, Anne refused to let the many challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated field stand in her way and, as a result, paved the way for future scientists.

Kathleen Lonsdale played a fundamental role in establishing the science of crystallography. In 1945, she was one of the first women elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the first female tenured professor at University College London, the first female president of the International Union of Crystallography and the first female president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

She was also a pacifist, and was jailed for refusing to register for civil defense duties during the Second World War.

Growing up in the years of the Apollo missions, Professor Sara Russell has always been fascinated with space. Currently working at the Natural History Museum, Sara’s story and her research inspires us to look beyond Earth, to the Moon and meteorites, in order to better understand the planet we call home.

After being told by her lecturer that she’d be better off in the kitchen, Ursula Marvin became an award-winning geologist. She won the Women in Science and Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award and even has an asteroid named after her.

On the tour, discover the story of one of the first women to adventure to Antarctica to look for meteorites.

A Victorian woman who was completely uninterested in nineteenth century gender conventions – how did Dorothea Bate become the first woman to get a scientific job at the Museum?

On the tour, you’ll discover Dorothea’s journeys through Europe, her fascinating discoveries and the story of a scientist who followed her dream.

As a child, Dr Erica McAlister was fascinated by insects and followed her dream.

Today, Erica is our Principal Curator of Diptera, researches flies all around the world, inspires young people to get into science and communicates her passion with the public. She’s a true advocate for flies.

Mary Anning today is famous for her important fossil discoveries on the south coast of England. Despite having a difficult life as an underprivileged woman in the nineteenth century, she found her place in science thanks to her intelligence, determination and passion.

What does a popular nursery rhyme have to do with fossil hunting? Find out on the tour.

Pop-science speaker, diversity advocate and our Principal Curator of Crustaceans, Miranda Lowe has always had a passion for nature. She’s even developed an interest in the role that museum exhibits play in our understanding of the natural world.

On the tour, you’ll find out about the fascinating collections Miranda looks after and her important role in championing fair representation in museums.

Known as the ‘jolly fast marchioness’ due to her love of jet-setting and gambling, the Marchioness of Hastings and twentieth Baroness Grey de Ruthyn was also a keen fossil hunter. Barbara built her own museum using the specimens she collected, with a specialism in vertebrates. Confidently conversing with the geologists of her time, Barbara marked her important place in science and paleontology.

Explorers’ reports and diaries were often written as heroic solo expeditions, leaving out the important contribution of local Indigenous knowledge and skills. The tour highlights the essential role of Indigenous women in these explorations.

How did Dr Angela Milner come to be known as the public face of dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum?

A paleontologist who famously described the dinosaur Baryonyx – alongside colleague Alan Charig – Angela’s career spanned over 50 years. On the tour, find out about Angela’s pathway into science, and her discoveries and legacy in our galleries today.

On this free tour, you’ll hear the gripping histories of several women scientists, including some who’ve worked, and some who still work, at the Natural History Museum. Encounter numerous treasures, such as specimens collected by Mary Anning, and learn more about our displays and cutting-edge science.