Skip to main content

‘A Very Worthy Lady’: Women Lecturing at the Royal Geographical Society, 1913–C.1940

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover The Palgrave Handbook of Women and Science since 1660
  • 746 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter explores how a particular group of women participated in the set of lecture spaces around and within the Royal Geographical Society in the early twentieth century. It demonstrates how they were able to disseminate the scientific results of their expeditionary work through these networks and will consider how that work was received—and how that reception both was, and was not, gendered. This was a space in which gender was visibly present, made so by the embodied presence of both speaker and audience. This chapter shows that far from being silent observers, women could and did speak within these lecture spaces. They emerge as a cohort, who can be considered together to uncover the similarities between them as a group, and with their male peers and colleagues.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alberti, Sara J. M. 2003. “Conversaziones and the Experience of Science in Victorian England.” Journal of Victorian Culture 8(2): 208–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Zelda. 1935. [Untitled Comment]. In: J. R. Baker [Baker, Z.], and W. Goodenough. “Espiritu Santo Discussion”. The Geographical Journal 85(3): 230–233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, Morag, and McEwan, Cheryl. 1996. “The Admission of Women Fellows to the Royal Geographical Society, 1892–1914: The Controversy and the Outcome.” The Geographical Journal 162: 295–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blunt, Alison. 1994. Travel, Gender and Imperialism. New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caton-Thompson, Gertrude. 1928. “Recent Excavations in the Fayum.” Man 28: 109–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caton-Thompson, Gertrude. 1983. Mixed Memoirs. Gateshead and Tyne & Wear: Paradigm Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caton-Thompson, Gertrude, and Gardner, Elinor W. 1929. “Recent Work on the Problem of Lake Moeris.” The Geographical Journal 73(1): 20–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caton-Thompson, Gertrude, and Gardner, Elinor W. 1932. “The Prehistoric Geography of Kharga Oasis.” The Geographical Journal 80(5): 369–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caton-Thompson, Gertrude, and Gardner, Elinor W. 1934. The Desert Fayum Bedford Place. London: The Royal Anthropological Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caton-Thompson, Gertrude, and Gardner, Elino W. 1938. “Climate, Irrigation, and Early Man in the Hadhramaut.” The Geographical Journal 93(1): 18–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coverley Price, A. V., and McKinnon Wood, Meta. 1933. “Professor J. W. Gregory’s Expedition to Peru, 1932.” The Geographical Journal 82(1): 16–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Curzon, George N. 1913. [Untitled Comment]. In: “The Balkan Peninsula: Discussion.” The Geographical Journal 41(4): 336–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drower, Margaret S. 2006. “Gertrude Caton-Thompson 1888–1985.” In: Getzel M. Cohen and Martha Sharp Joukowsky (eds.) Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists, 351–379. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, Sarah L. 2016. “Mapping Terra Incognita: Women’s Participation in Royal Geographical Society-Supported Expeditions 1913–1939.” Historical Geography 44: 30–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, Sarah L. 2017. “Lost Histories.” Geographical 89(5): 22–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, Sarah L., Keighren, Innes, and Maddrell, Avril. 2013. “Coming of Age? Reflections on the Centenary of Women’s Admission to the Royal Geographical Society.” The Geographical Journal 179(4): 373–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finnegan, Diarmid A. 2017. “Finding a Scientific Voice: Performing Science, Space and Speech in the 19th Century.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 42(2): 192–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodenough, William. 1932. [Untitled Comment]. In: W. Goodenough, G. A. S. Northcote, R. E. Dent, C. W. Hobley, E. B. Worthington, and J. S. Gardiner “The Lakes of Kenya and Uganda: Discussion.” The Geographical Journal 79: 293–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodenough, William. 1939. [Untitled Comment]. In: W. Goodenough, S. Perowne, L. Wakefield, and L. Leconfield. “An Exploration in the Hadhramaut and Journey to the Coast: Discussion.” The Geographical Journal 93(1): 14–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, Emily. 2018. “Geographical Light: The Magic Lantern, the Reform of the Royal Geographical Society and the Professionalization of Geography c.1885–1894.” Journal of Historical Geography 62: 24–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgitt, Rebecca, and Withers, Charles W. J. 2008. “Science and Sociability: Women as Audience at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1831–190.” Isis 99: 1–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoe, Susanna. 2012. Travels in Tandem: The Writing of Men and Women Who Travelled Together. Oxford: The Women’s History Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keighren, Innes M. 2006. “Bringing Geography to the Book: Charting the Reception of Influences of Geographic Environment.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31: 525–540.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keighren, Innes M. 2010. Bringing Geography to Book: Ellen Semple and the Reception of Geographical Knowledge. London and New York: I. B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone, David N. 2005. “Text, Talk and Testimony: Geographical Reflections on Scientific Habits. An Afterword.” British Journal for the History of Science 38(1): 93–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maddrell, Avril. 2009. Complex Locations: Women’s Geographical Work in the UK 1850–1970. Oxford: RGS-IBG Book Series/Blackwell.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Middleton, Dorothy. [1965] 1982. Victorian Lady Travellers. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mill, Hugh. 1930. The Record of the Royal Geographical Society, 1830–1930. London: Royal Geographical Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray Chapman, Olive. 1940. “Primitive Tribes in Madagascar.” The Geographical Journal 96: 14–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naylor, Simon. 2002. “The Field, the Museum and the Lecture Hall: The Spaces of Natural History in Victorian Cornwall.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 27: 494–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, Ben. 2019. “Authorising Geographical Knowledge: The Development of Peer Review in The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1830–c.1880.” Journal of Historical Geography 64: 85–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogilvie, Marilyn, and Harvey, Joy. 2000. Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perowne, Stewart. 1939. [Untitled Comment]. In: W. Goodenough, S. Perowne, L. Wakefield, and L. Leconfield. “An Exploration in the Hadhramaut and Journey to the Coast: Discussion.” The Geographical Journal 93(1): 14–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Routledge, Katherine. 1917. “Easter Island.” The Geographical Journal 49(5): 321–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Routledge, William S. 1917. Untitled Comment. In: W. S. Routledge, H. Read, T. A. Joyce, A. P. Maudslay, B. Thomson, H. Balfour, J. W. Evans, H. O. Forbes, and H. Howorth. “Easter Island: Discussion.” The Geographical Journal 49 (5): 340–349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russ, Joanna. [1983] 2018. How to Suppress Women’s Writing. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stark, Freya. 1936. “Two Months in the Hadhramaut.” The Geographical Journal 87(2): 113–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stark, Freya. 1938. “An Exploration in the Hadhramaut and Journey to the Coast.” The Geographical Journal 93(1): 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stark, Freya. 1976. Letters: Volume Three the Growth of Danger 1935–39, edited by Lucy Moorehead. Wiltshire: Compton Russell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wager, Phyllis. 1937. [Untitled Comment]. In: H. Balfour, E. C. Fountaine, W. A. Deer, A. Courtauld, L. R. Wager, and E. Munck. “The Kangerdlugssuak Region of East Greenland: Discussion.” The Geographical Journal 90(5): 422–425.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins, Miss. [no first name given] 1840. “Rise in die Steppen des dulichen Russlands, &c. Journey Through the Steppes of Southern Russia, undertaken by Dr F Goebel, accompanied by Dr C. Claus and Mr A. Bergmann.” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 10: 537–543.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Worthington, Stella, and Worthington, Edgar Barton. 1933. Inland Waters of Africa: The Result of Two Expeditions to the Great Lakes of Kenya and Uganda, with Accounts of Their Biology, Native Tribes and Development. London: Macmillan & Co.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah L. Evans .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Evans, S.L. (2022). ‘A Very Worthy Lady’: Women Lecturing at the Royal Geographical Society, 1913–C.1940. In: Jones, C.G., Martin, A.E., Wolf, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Women and Science since 1660. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78973-2_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78973-2_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-78972-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-78973-2

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics