An Irish Female Pioneer in Geology: Mary Katherine Andrews (1852–1914)

Abstract: Mary Katherine Andrews (1852–1914) was a woman of her time: a Victorian then Edwardian lady interested in science. Raised in an academic household in Belfast, she did not have the opportunity to attend university when she was young because women were not accepted at the time. This did not discourage her in developing her scientific interests, and she became an accomplished amateur geologist. The quality of her work led to the honorary position of Secretary of the Geological Section of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club (BNFC). She was attracted to several fields of geology, but focussed her attention and research on aspects of geomorphology and petrology. Part of her work in the Geological Section involved discerning the direction of ice flow, mainly from the Devensian, based on extensive collecting and documentation of glacial erratics rocks in Northern Ireland. Mary was an international collector and a curator of geological specimens for the BNFC, a photographer of landscapes and specimens, a researcher, concerned with conservation of geological heritage, and a good communicator. Her legacy is not restricted to the petrological rock samples she collected and the thin sections she prepared, but she also collected fossils, wrote papers, took many geological photographs that she deposited with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and above all, the enthusiasm she transmitted to young females.