Caroline Birley (16 November 1851 – 15 February 1907) was an English geologist, fossil collector and children's author.^[1] 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.^[2] Her interest ingeology started with stones she collected as a child and her enthusiasm continued until her death.^[3]

She was born at York Place, Oxford Road in theChorlton-on-Medlock area of Manchester,^[2] the fourth and last child of Thomas Hornby Birley J.P. (1815–1885) and Anne Leatham (1820–1866).^[4]

Her brother,Francis, was an amateurfootballer who won theFA Cup three times in the 1870s and made two appearances forEngland.^[5] Her uncle wasHugh Birley, who was aConservative Member of Parliament forManchester from 1868 to 1883.^[2]

In 1857, she moved with her family from York Place to Highfield inHeaton Mersey and then, in 1864, to Hart Hill Mansion,Pendleton,^[2] and again to 4 Seedley Terrace in 1884.^[2]

As a child, Birley developed an interest in geology and on her family holidays on theIsle of Man she would collect stones showing unusual peculiarities.^[3] At the age of 12, she became a subscriber to theGeological 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.^[3]

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.^[2]

In 1887, Birley joined theBritish 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 theGeologists' Association and, in 1894, she joined theMalacological Society of London,^[2] founded the year before.^[6]

Between 1887 and 1905, Birley regularly travelled abroad to collect geological specimens, usually accompanied by her friend Louisa Copland. Thesefield trips included:^[2]

• January 1887 – Egypt
• June 1887 –Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
• July 1888 –Faxe, Denmark
• May 1889 –Faeroe Islands
• May 1890 – Faeroe Islands^[7]
• 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 ofLate Cretaceous fossils. In the November 1901 edition ofThe Geological Magazine, Dr.Henry Woodward (of theNatural History Museum, London) described Birley's finds^[8] and named two new species of the genusDromiopsis (D. birleyae andD. coplandae) after Birley and her friend, Louisa Copland.^[2][3] In namingDromiopsis birleyae, Woodward wrote:

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.^[2]

During her 1889 visit to the Faeroes, she collected six hundredweight of rocks containingzeolites from the islands ofStreymoy,Nólsoy andEysturoy.^[3] In 1891, she and Louisa Copland contributed an article on the flora of the Faeroe Islands toThe Journal of Botany.^[2][9] In September 1899, she discovered a new genus and species of crab in thegault clays atFolkestone, Kent; Woodward described this inThe Geological Magazine and named itMesodromilites birleyae.^[2][3][10]

She also visitedOrmara in Baluchistan (nowBalochistan in western Pakistan); her collection offossiliferous nodules was given toRichard Bullen Newton who described them in detail in the July 1905 edition ofThe Geological Magazine,^[3][11] with Woodward adding a further note.^[12]

She wrote several books for children,^[13] many of which were published by theSociety for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.^[2] Her books include:^{[14][15][16][17]}

• We are Seven (1879)^[18][19]
• A Heap of Stones (1881)^[20][21]
• Undine; a Romance of Modern Days; and Other Stories (1883)^[22][23]
• Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be? A Tale of Churchill Wakes (1883)^[24][25]
• Eyes to the Blind: A tale (1886)^[26]
• Gerald's Rescue (1886)
• Jessamine and her Lesson Books, and How She Missed the Gipsey Tea (1887)^[27][28][29]
• The Linen Room Window, or "What snow conceals, the sun reveals" (1898)^[30][31]

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.^[32][33]
• 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 andCharlotte Mary Yonge.^[34][35][36] Caroline Birley's contribution wasA Christmas Wheatsheaf.^[37]

• My Lady Bountiful: A true tale ofHarriet, Duchess of St. Albans (1888)^[38][39]

In 1896, she moved to Brunswick Gardens in Kensington, to where she also relocated her collection.^[3] Towards the end of her life, she returned to Pendleton.^[2]

She spent most of her days in theBritish Museum, naming and arranging her specimens. Despite suffering from ill-health, she attended the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science inYork 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 ofNew Red Sandstone from theStourton Quarries nearBirkenhead withLabyrinthodont footprints on its surface.^[3]

In February 1907, she suffered a bout ofinfluenza^[40] and died of a heart attack on 15 February. She was buried atLingfield Church, Surrey, near the home of her brother,Francis.^[3] She was unmarried and had no children.^[2]

In 1894, she donated eight specimens of zeolite group minerals from the Faroe Islands and Iceland to theManchester Museum.^[41]

Her will directed that most of her collection of geological specimens should be donated to the LondonNatural 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".^[2] Her executors,Lazarus Fletcher of the Natural History Museum and her brother, Francis, distributed her collection more widely, with gifts to theManchester Grammar School, theUniversity of Oxford and to museums atBolton, Bury, Rochdale, Radcliffe and Warrington.^[2]

Her obituary, published inThe Geological Magazine, said of her:

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.^[3]

• 1851 births
• 1907 deaths
• People from Chorlton-on-Medlock
• English women geologists
• English malacologists
• English women novelists
• English children's writers
• 19th-century British geologists
• 19th-century English novelists
• 19th-century English women writers
• Birley family

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