{{Short description|British geologist and writer (1851–1907)}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Caroline Birley | honorific_suffix = | image = | caption = | birth_name = Caroline Birley | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1851|11|16}} | birth_place = York Place, Oxford Road, Chorlton-on-Medlock, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1907|02|15|1851|11|16}} | death_place = Pendleton, Greater Manchester, England | resting_place = Lingfield Church, Surrey, England | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline}} --> | monuments = | nationality = | other_names = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = Geologist and children's writer | organization = | known_for = | notable_works = ''We are Seven''<br/> ''Jessamine and her Lesson Books'' | style = | spouse = | children = | relatives = Francis Birley (brother) | awards = }} '''Caroline Birley''' (16 November 1851 – 15 February 1907) was an English geologist, fossil collector and children's author.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Caroline Birley |url=https://ecclesoldroad.uk/person/1191/ |access-date=19 May 2024 |website=Eccles Old Road |language=en}}</ref> As a geologist, she was noteworthy, not so much for the scientific value of her collection, but for the regard with which she was held in a predominately male profession.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/> Her interest in geology started with stones she collected as a child and her enthusiasm continued until her death.<ref name=Obituary/>
==Family and early life== She was born at York Place, Oxford Road in the Chorlton-on-Medlock area of Manchester,<ref name="Bolton Museum">{{cite web|title=Caroline Birley |url=http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/collections/geology/collectorscollections/caroline-francis-birley/ |publisher=Bolton Museum |access-date=23 January 2012 |date=7 June 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208082547/http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/collections/geology/collectorscollections/caroline-francis-birley/ |archive-date=8 February 2012 }}</ref> the fourth and last child of Thomas Hornby Birley J.P. (1815–1885) and Anne Leatham (1820–1866).<ref name="family tree">{{cite web|title=Fifth Generation |url=http://www.birley.org/Descendants%20of%20John%20Birley%20of%20Skippool/b32.htm#P260 |work=The Birley family |publisher=www.birley.org |access-date=23 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321102357/http://www.birley.org/Descendants%20of%20John%20Birley%20of%20Skippool/b32.htm |archive-date=21 March 2012 }}</ref>
Her brother, Francis, was an amateur footballer who won the FA Cup three times in the 1870s and made two appearances for England.<ref name="Warsop">{{cite book| last = Warsop| first = Keith| title = The Early FA Cup Finals and the Southern Amateurs| year = 2004| publisher = SoccerData| isbn = 978-1-899468-78-2| pages = 63–64 }}</ref> Her uncle was Hugh Birley, who was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Manchester from 1868 to 1883.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/>
In 1857, she moved with her family from York Place to Highfield in Heaton Mersey and then, in 1864, to Hart Hill Mansion, Pendleton,<ref name="Bolton Museum"/> and again to 4 Seedley Terrace in 1884.<ref name="Bolton Museum" />
==Career as a geologist== As a child, Birley developed an interest in geology and on her family holidays on the Isle of Man she would collect stones showing unusual peculiarities.<ref name="Obituary">{{cite journal|title=Obituary—Caroline Birley|journal = Geological Magazine|volume = 4|issue = 3|pages = 143|date=March 1907|doi = 10.1017/S0016756800130146|doi-access = free}}</ref> At the age of 12, she became a subscriber to the ''Geological Magazine'' in its first year of publication in 1864. At first, she paid for her subscription from her own pocket before her grandmother made her an allowance to cover the cost.<ref name=Obituary/>
In 1884, she moved from Hart Hill Mansion to nearby Seedley Terrace. Before long, her collection had outgrown her home so she erected an iron building in her garden, which she named the "Seedley Museum"; the museum was opened to the public in 1888.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/>
In 1887, Birley joined the British Association for the Advancement of Science following the Association's conference in Manchester. The following year she became a life member, attending the Association's annual meetings every year until her death. In 1890, she joined the Geologists' Association and, in 1894, she joined the Malacological Society of London,<ref name="Bolton Museum"/> founded the year before.<ref>[http://www.malacsoc.org.uk/ home page] of malacsoc.org.uk (official web site), accessed 2 March 2012</ref>
===Field trips=== right|thumb|100px| ''Dromiopsis birleyae'' – a fossil crustacean discovered by Caroline Birley right|thumb|100px| ''Mesodromilities birleyi'' – fossil crab discovered by Caroline Birley Between 1887 and 1905, Birley regularly travelled abroad to collect geological specimens, usually accompanied by her friend Louisa Copland. These field trips included:<ref name="Bolton Museum"/>
* January 1887 – Egypt * June 1887 – Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy * July 1888 – Faxe, Denmark * May 1889 – Faeroe Islands * May 1890 – Faeroe Islands<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1907 |title=Caroline Birley |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/caroline-birley/D66D7448623CE13062898C3783D25D97 |journal=Geological Magazine |language=en |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=143–144 |doi=10.1017/S0016756800130146 |issn=1469-5081}}</ref> * July 1891 – Faxe, Denmark * November 1891 – Malta * November 1892 – Algiers, Algeria * November 1893 – Corsica and Italy * August 1897 – Canada and Colorado * April 1899 – The Azores * April 1902 – Boulogne, France * July 1905 – Cape Town, South Africa
On her trips to Faxe in Denmark in 1888 and 1891, she collected a large amount of Late Cretaceous fossils. In the November 1901 edition of ''The Geological Magazine'', Dr. Henry Woodward (of the Natural History Museum, London) described Birley's finds<ref>{{cite journal|last=Woodward|first=Henry|title=On some Crustacea collected by Miss Caroline Birley and Miss L. Copland from the Upper Cretaceous of Faxe, Denmark |volume=8|issue=11|pages=486–501|journal=The Geological Magazine|author-link=Henry Woodward (geologist)|date=November 1901|doi=10.1017/S0016756800179890|bibcode=1901GeoM....8..486W|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1768676|doi-access=free}}</ref> and named two new species of the genus ''Dromiopsis'' (''D. birleyae'' and ''D. coplandae'') after Birley and her friend, Louisa Copland.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/><ref name=Obituary/> In naming ''Dromiopsis birleyae'', Woodward wrote:
<blockquote>I dedicate this species to my friend Miss Caroline Birley, who has given so much time and attention to the study of geology and palaeontology both at home and abroad, and whose private collection bears testimony to her devotion to science.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/></blockquote>
During her 1889 visit to the Faeroes, she collected six hundredweight of rocks containing zeolites from the islands of Streymoy, Nólsoy and Eysturoy.<ref name=Obituary/> In 1891, she and Louisa Copland contributed an article on the flora of the Faeroe Islands to ''The Journal of Botany''.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/><ref>{{cite book| last = Birley| first = Caroline| title = In the Færoes| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QxZMHAAACAAJ| year = 1891}}</ref> In September 1899, she discovered a new genus and species of crab in the gault clays at Folkestone, Kent; Woodward described this in ''The Geological Magazine'' and named it ''Mesodromilites birleyae''.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/><ref name=Obituary/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Woodward|first=Henry|title=Note on a Crustacean Mesodromilites Birleyi, gen. et sp. nov., from the Gault of Folkestone, Kent |volume=7|issue=2|pages=61–64|journal=The Geological Magazine|author-link=Henry Woodward (geologist)|date=February 1900|doi=10.1017/S0016756800181725|bibcode=1900GeoM....7...61W}}</ref>
She also visited Ormara in Baluchistan (now Balochistan in western Pakistan); her collection of fossiliferous nodules was given to Richard Bullen Newton who described them in detail in the July 1905 edition of ''The Geological Magazine'',<ref name=Obituary/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Bullen Newton|first=Richard|title=An Account of Some Marine Fossils Contained in Limestone Nodules Found on the Mekran Beach, off the Ormara Headland, Baluchistan |volume=2|issue=7|pages=293–303|journal=The Geological Magazine|date=July 1905|doi=10.1017/S0016756800124999|bibcode=1905GeoM....2..293N|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1651229|doi-access=free}}</ref> with Woodward adding a further note.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Woodward|first=Henry|title=Note on a Fossil Crab and a Group of Balani Discovered in Concretions on the Beach at Ormara Headland, Mekran Coast|volume=2|issue=7|pages=305–310|journal=The Geological Magazine|author-link=Henry Woodward (geologist)|date=July 1905|doi=10.1017/S0016756800125014|bibcode=1905GeoM....2..305W|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1931111}}</ref>
==Children's author== right|thumb|90px|''Jessamine and her Lesson Books'' (1887) right|thumb|90px|''Jack Frost's Little Prisoners'' (1887) She wrote several books for children,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Caroline Birley {{!}} The Online Books Page |url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Birley,%20Caroline |access-date=19 May 2024 |website=onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu}}</ref> many of which were published by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/> Her books include:<ref>{{cite web|title=Author: "Caroline Birley"|url=https://www.google.com/search?q=inauthor:%22Caroline+Birley%22|access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Author names starting with Bi|url=http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/ngcoba/bi.htm|work=New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors|publisher=www.authorandbookinfo.com|access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Shattock| first = Joanne| title = The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Volume 4; Volumes 1800–1900| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zc6BnY4UQmIC&pg=PA2365| access-date = 25 January 2012| year = 2000| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-39100-9| page = 1751 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Birley, Caroline|url=http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2009-62720|publisher=www.worldcat.org|access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref>
* ''We are Seven'' (1879)<ref>{{cite book| last = Birley| first = Caroline| title = We are Seven: A Tale for Children| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZMNAAAAQAAJ| year = 1879| publisher = Wells Gardner, Darton }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Birley| first = Caroline| title = We Are Seven: A Tale for Children| year = 1879| publisher = Wells Gardner, Darton| isbn = 978-1-120-95424-4 }}</ref> * ''A Heap of Stones'' (1881)<ref>{{cite book| last = Birley| first = Caroline| title = A heap of stones| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=k90CAAAAQAAJ| year = 1881| publisher = Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Birley| first = Caroline| title = A Heap of Stones| year = 1881| publisher = SPCK| isbn = 978-1-178-96724-1 }}</ref> * ''Undine; a Romance of Modern Days; and Other Stories'' (1883)<ref>{{cite book| last = Birley| first = Caroline| title = Undine; and other stories| url = https://archive.org/details/undine00birlgoog| year = 1883}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Birley| first = Caroline| title = Undine and Other Stories| year = 1883| publisher = A. L. Burt| isbn = 978-1-150-32184-9 }}</ref> * ''Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be? A Tale of Churchill Wakes'' (1883)<ref>{{cite book| last = Birley| first = Caroline| title = Oh dear! what can the matter be?| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kxcCAAAAQAAJ| year = 1883| publisher = Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Birley| first = Caroline| title = Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be?| year = 1883| publisher = SPCK| isbn = 978-1-178-97497-3 }}</ref> * ''Eyes to the Blind: A tale'' (1886)<ref>{{cite book|title=Eyes to the blind. (A tale) – Caroline Birley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hLaxOwAACAAJ|access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref> * ''Gerald's Rescue'' (1886) * ''Jessamine and her Lesson Books, and How She Missed the Gipsey Tea'' (1887)<ref>{{cite book| author = Caroline Birley| author2 = Skeffington & Son| title = Jessamine and Her Lesson-books: And how She Missed the Gypsy Tea| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LtCwHAAACAAJ| year = 1887| publisher = Skeffington & Son }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Birley|first=Caroline|title=Jessamine and her lesson-books|year=1887|publisher=Skeffington & Son|url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00055306/00001|format=Read online |access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Birley|first=Caroline|title=Jessamine and her Lesson-Books, and how she missed the gipsy tea|year=1887|publisher=Skeffington & Son |url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jessamine-her-Lesson-Books-missed-gipsy/dp/B000WGJC06/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327470140&sr=1-1|access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref> * ''The Linen Room Window, or "What snow conceals, the sun reveals"'' (1898)<ref>{{cite book|title=The linen room window, or, "What snow conceals, the sun reveals" – Caroline Birley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_klvPAAACAAJ |access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Birley|first=Caroline|title=The Linen-Room Window, or What Snow Conceals, the Sun Reveals|year=1898|publisher=Wells Gardner Darton & Co|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Linen-Room-Window-What-Conceals-Reveals/dp/B001EGV1W0|access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref>
She also contributed to two volumes of short stories:
* ''My Birthday Present: A Series of Original Birthday Stories for Boys and Girls from Six to Twelve Years of Age'' (1886) Contributors:Sabine Baring-Gould, Caroline Birley, Helen Wilmot-Buxton, Ethel M. Wilmot-Buxton, Frances Charlton and Frances Clare.<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Baring-Gould| first1 = Sabine| last2 = Birley| first2 = Caroline| last3 = Wilmot-Buxton| first3 = Helen| title = My Birthday Present: A Series of Original Birthday Stories for Boys and Girls from Six to Twelve Years of Age| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=umKXPwAACAAJ| year = 2009| publisher = Kessinger Publishing| isbn = 978-1-104-33704-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last1 = Baring-Gould| first1 = Sabine| last2 = Birley| first2 = Caroline| last3 = Wilmot-Buxton| first3 = Helen| title = My Birthday Present: A Series of Original Birthday Stories for Boys and Girls from Six to Twelve Years of Age| year = 1886| publisher = Kessinger Publishing (reprint 2009)| isbn = 978-1-104-29841-8 }}</ref> * ''Jack Frost's Little Prisoners: A collection of stories for children from four to twelve years of age'' (1887) Contributors: Stella Austin, Sabine Baring-Gould, Caroline Birley, Lord Brabourne (E.H. Knatchbull-Hugessen), Lucy Fletcher-Massey, Mrs. Molesworth, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Ethel M. Wilmot-Buxton and Charlotte Mary Yonge.<ref>{{cite book|title=Jack Frost's little prisoners|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XiWGwAACAAJ|access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Jack Frost's Little Prisoners: A Collection of Stories for Children From Four to Twelve Years of Age|url=http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp49518 |publisher=The Online Books Page|access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Jack Frost's little prisoners: A collection of stories for children from four to twelve years of age|year=1887|publisher=Skeffington & Son|url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/?b=UF00055060|author=Austin, Stella|author2=Baring-Gould,Sabine|author3=Birley, Caroline|access-date=25 January 2012|format=Read online|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701154113/http://ufdc.ufl.edu/?b=UF00055060|archive-date=1 July 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Caroline Birley's contribution was ''A Christmas Wheatsheaf''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Birley|first=Caroline|title=A Christmas Wheatsheaf|year=1887|publisher=Skeffington & Son|url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00055060/00001/121j|access-date=25 January 2012|format=Read Online}}</ref>
===Other books=== * ''My Lady Bountiful: A true tale of Harriet, Duchess of St. Albans'' (1888)<ref>{{cite book|last=Birley|first=Caroline|title=My Lady Bountiful. A true tale of Harriot, Duchess of St. Albans|year=1888|publisher=Walter Smith & Innes|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lady-Bountiful-Harriot-Duchess-Albans/dp/B000WGQYSE/ref=sr_1_27?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327390887&sr=1-27|access-date=25 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=My lady bountiful : a true tale of Harriot, Duchess of St. Albans |publisher=www.worldcat.org|oclc=320313225 }}</ref>
==Later life and death== In 1896, she moved to Brunswick Gardens in Kensington, to where she also relocated her collection.<ref name=Obituary/> Towards the end of her life, she returned to Pendleton.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/>
She spent most of her days in the British Museum, naming and arranging her specimens. Despite suffering from ill-health, she attended the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in York in August 1906. Her health continued to deteriorate in the autumn, but she still continued to label her latest finds, which included a large slab of New Red Sandstone from the Stourton Quarries near Birkenhead with Labyrinthodont footprints on its surface.<ref name=Obituary/>
In February 1907, she suffered a bout of influenza<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 May 2014 |title=Caroline Birley |website=Trowelblazers |url=https://trowelblazers.com/2014/05/08/caroline-birley-this-ardent-geologist/ |access-date=19 May 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref> and died of a heart attack on 15 February. She was buried at Lingfield Church, Surrey, near the home of her brother, Francis.<ref name=Obituary/> She was unmarried and had no children.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/>
==Legacy== In 1894, she donated eight specimens of zeolite group minerals from the Faroe Islands and Iceland to the Manchester Museum.<ref>{{cite web|title=Other Major Collectors|url=http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/collection/rocksandminerals/|work=Rocks and Minerals|publisher=Manchester Museum|access-date=26 January 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225121221/http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/collection/rocksandminerals/|archive-date=25 February 2012}}</ref>
Her will directed that most of her collection of geological specimens should be donated to the London Natural History Museum, with any material not wanted there to be passed to the Manchester Museum, with the request that her material should be labelled as belonging to the "Caroline Birley Collection".<ref name="Bolton Museum"/> Her executors, Lazarus Fletcher of the Natural History Museum and her brother, Francis, distributed her collection more widely, with gifts to the Manchester Grammar School, the University of Oxford and to museums at Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Radcliffe and Warrington.<ref name="Bolton Museum"/>
Her obituary, published in ''The Geological Magazine'', said of her:<blockquote>By the death of Miss Caroline Birley, a most ardent and enthusiastic student has been lost to the science of Geology, one who from her childhood to the end of her life never wavered in devotion to this her cherished pursuit, nor thought any fatigue or personal sacrifice too great in order to visit places of geological interest and obtain specimens for her beloved Museum.<ref name=Obituary/></blockquote>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Birley family}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birley, Caroline}} Category:1851 births Category:1907 deaths Category:People from Chorlton-on-Medlock Category:English women geologists Category:English malacologists Category:English women children's writers Category:19th-century English geologists Category:19th-century English women novelists Category:19th-century English women writers Caroline Birley Category:Writers from Manchester Category:Scientists from Manchester