Â鶹¾«Ñ¡

Catriona has been with the Lapworth Museum of Geology for more than five years, and is known by staff and volunteers alike as a familiar fountain of nineteenth century knowledge. Most recently, she has set about charging the team's social battery with visits to other museums and leading a new Volunteer Newsletter.

This month, Catriona published the findings from her time spent delving into the mind and life of Charles Lapworth (1842–1920). The Lapworth Archive holds an impressive record of the research, teaching, and personal items of this pioneering geologist, and with documents covering roughly fifty years, it is one of the most complete archives of any natural historian.

An array of 'geological gossip' has been unearthed during Catriona's tenure. Most noteworthy is the detriment that excessive working clearly brought to the mental wellbeing of Lapworth, as well as his correspondents, with both John Wesley Judd (1840–1916) and Henry Alleyne Nicholson (1844–1899) confessing their own vulnerabilities in mutual camaraderie. She has also further shone a light on Lapworth's support of women in geology, Victorian scientists too often overlooked by their male peers. Lapworth was a close mentor and friend to Ethel Shakespear, née Wood (1871–1945) and Gertrude Elles (1872–1960), as well as teacher to Maria Ogilvy Gordon (1864–1939), who may even have developed a small crush on her tutor.

Catriona has allowed visitors to fully comprehend the scope of these papers, documents older than our living generations which still remain surprisingly relevant to modern concerns; and has said that in reading these correspondence, one can glimpse the timeless aspect of the human experience.

Her full article can be found in GeoHistories, the illustrated biannual magazine produced for members of the .