Maria Emma Gray (1787 – 9 December 1876), was an English

conchologist Conchology, from Ancient Greek κόγχος (''kónkhos''), meaning "cockle (bivalve), cockle", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of mollus ...

, algologist and

scientific illustrator Technical illustration is illustration meant to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be components of technical drawings or diagrams. Technical illustrations in general aim "to generate expressive im ...

Family

Her father was Lieutenant Henry Smith, R.N., and he was resident at Greenwich Hospital at the time of her birth.

Life

Gray was born in 1787 at Greenwich Hospital. She married in 1810 Francis Edward Gray, who died four years later, and had by him two daughters, who survived her. Both daughters, Emma Juliana Gray Smith and Sophia Elizabeth Gray Stokes, were also scientific illustrators. In 1826 she married his second cousin,

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for a z ...

. She greatly assisted her second husband in his scientific work, especially by her drawings. Between 1842 and 1874 she published privately five volumes of etchings, entitled ''Figures of Molluscan Animals for the use of Students'', and she mounted and arranged most of the Cuming collection of shells in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. She also made a study of

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

, arranging many sets for presentation to schools throughout the country so as to encourage the pursuit of this subject. She worked at both the herbaria at Kew as well as at the British Museum curating algae specimens. Her own collection was bequeathed to the

Cambridge University Museum Museums in the university town of Cambridge, England. {{Commons category, Museums in Cambridge Cambridge Cambridge Buildings and structures in Cambridge Culture in Cambridge Education in Cambridge Organisations based in Cambridge Tourist attr ...

. Her assistance in this branch of her husband's studies was commemorated by him in 1866 in the algae genus '' Grayemma''. Similarly, he named two species of lizards in her honor: '' Calotes maria'' and '' Calotes emma''. He also named the species ''Scapha maria-emma,'' now known as '' Cymbiola mariaemma'', after her. He went on to have a bronze medallion struck in 1863, bearing both their portraits, a copy of which is in the possession of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collec ...

. Gray survived her husband by a year, dying on 9 December 1876.

Gallery

File:Figures of molluscous animals, selected from various authors (1859) (14593061148).jpg,

Nudibranch Nudibranchs () are a group of soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs, belonging to the order Nudibranchia, that shed their shells after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colours and striking forms, and they have b ...

s File:Figures of molluscous animals BHL11075359.jpg,

Mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

s File:Figures of molluscous animals BHL11075243.jpg, Unidentified File:Figures of molluscous animals, selected from various authors (1859) (14779983695).jpg,

Slugs Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a sma ...

References

External links

Image
of bronze medallion featuring Gray held at the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

, London. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Maria Emma 1787 births 1876 deaths British conchologists British phycologists Women phycologists People from Greenwich 18th-century English people 19th-century English scientists 19th-century English women scientists Scientists from London