Agnes Crane

Agnes Crane was born in June 1852 in Thorney, near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=ytEf7xj120Y%2B2s2pStKfGA&scan=1|title=Index entry, Agnes Crane|accessdate=19 August 2024|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}

She was the only child of Edward Crane and Jane Turnell. Crane lived in Thorney until 1866, when her father retired. They settled in Brighton in 1867, after travelling around Europe.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/edward-crane-fgs/C89771705CE9B8E60CEF049A345938D0|title=Edward Crane, F.G.S.|date=19 June 1901|journal=Geological Magazine|volume=8|issue=6|pages=286–287|via=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0016756800178719|bibcode=1901GeoM....8R.286. }} Crane lived in Brighton for the rest of her life.{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=R%2FUUPgmDF342tWEdgyHp2g&scan=1|title=Index entry, Agnes Crane|accessdate=19 August 2024|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}

Edward Crane was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1872, and became involved with the Brighton Museum in the 1870s, first assisting with the geological gallery, and later as a member and then chair of the museum committee.

File:Agnes_Crane's_gorilla_skeleton.jpg

From the late 1870s, Crane had a deep interest in recent and fossil organisms, and wrote a number of journal articles on fish, cephalopods and brachiopods. She had no formal university training, but corresponded with leading zoologists and paleontologists of the day, such as Albert Günther at the Natural History Museum, London, and presented her work or, had her work presented, to local scientific meetings, including the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society.{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_8AAAAAYAAJ|journal=Annual Report and Abstract of Proceedings of the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society|year=1877|pages=44–58|title=Ordinary Meeting – Miss Agnes Crane On certain genera of living fish and their fossil genera|via=googlebooks}} In Brighton, Crane was able to work with Scottish paleontologist, and brachiopod specialist, Thomas Davidson. Davidson lived in Brighton for many years, and in the 1870s was chairman of the Brighton museum committee,{{cite journal |title=Obituary. Thomas Davidson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., F.L.S., &c |journal=Geological Magazine |year=1885 |volume=2 |page=528 |doi=10.1017/S0016756800199480 |doi-access=free }} a role later taken on by Crane's father.

After Davidson died, in 1885, Crane was invited by the Linnean Society to oversee the editing and final production of Davidson's monograph of recent brachiopods.{{Cite web|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015061905678&seq=7|title=A monograph of recent Brachiopoda|website=HathiTrust}} Within the collections left by Davidson, Crane came across some samples of brachiopods that had recently been dredged from shallow waters offshore from Port Stephens, New South Wales by Australian malacologist John Brazier. Davidson had labelled the samples Atretia brazeri, in honour of the collector, but had not completed any formal description of the material. Crane examined and described the samples, and published the first technical description of this new species in a paper in April 1886. Subsequent work has shown that this species is part of a genus of brachiopods, Aulites, that are only found in Australian waters.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gbif.org/species/2252900|title=Aulites Richardson, 1987|website=www.gbif.org}}

In subsequent years, Crane wrote a number of book chapters, essays and technical papers on brachiopod anatomy and evolution.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/025107a0|title=Popular Natural History 1|date=1 December 1881|journal=Nature|volume=25|issue=631|pages=107–109|via=www.nature.com|doi=10.1038/025107a0|bibcode=1881Natur..25..107. }}{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1766159|title=The Generic Evolution of the Palæozoic Brachiopoda|author=Crane, Agnes|year=1893|journal=Science|volume=21|issue=523|pages=72–74|doi=10.1126/science.ns-21.523.72 |jstor=1766159 |pmid=17784425 |bibcode=1893Sci....21...72C }}

In addition to her writings on paleontology, Crane wrote more widely on topics including sea-level change{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1623825|title=The Submergence of Western Europe Prior to the Neolithic Period|author=Crane, Agnes|year=1895|journal=Science|volume=2|issue=27|pages=2–4|doi=10.1126/science.2.27.2 |jstor=1623825 |pmid=17729578 |bibcode=1895Sci.....2....2C }} and ancient Mexican heraldry; she also wrote a number of book reviews for scientific journals and contributed to discussions of papers on other topics.{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1765828|title=Coyote or Bear?|author=Crane, Agnes|year=1893|journal=Science|volume=22|issue=552|pages=124–125|doi=10.1126/science.ns-22.552.124-a |jstor=1765828 |pmid=17746218 }}

Crane was well travelled and, among other things, published a serialised account of a trip to the United States with her father in 1881 in The Leisure Hour, with notes on her visits to a number of museums and collections.{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044106445794&seq=6|title=Notes on the eastern cities and museums of the United States. In four parts, July–October|last=Crane|first=Agnes|journal=The Leisure Hour|year=1882|volume=32|via=HathiTrust}} In August 1893, Crane was one of twelve women who presented papers at the Women's Auxiliary Branch of the World's Congress in Chicago.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/048107a0|title=Notes|date=1 June 1893|journal=Nature|volume=48|issue=1231|pages=107–111|via=www.nature.com|doi=10.1038/048107a0|bibcode=1893Natur..48..107. }}{{Cite journal|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/606216|title=Editorial|date=20 September 1893|journal=The Journal of Geology|volume=1|issue=6|page=631|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1086/606216|bibcode=1893JG......1..620. }}

Crane died in September 1932, in Brighton. Her collections of brachiopods are now held by the Booth Museum of Natural History.{{Cite web |last=Cooper |first=John |date=2020 |title=A Catalogue of the Type, Figured and Cited specimens in the geological collections of the Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton |url=https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/PUBLISHED_TYPE-CATALOGUE_updatedFebruary2020.doc}}

• Crane A. (1877) "On Certain Genera of Living Fishes and their Fossil Affinities". Geological Magazine, 4, 209–219.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/abs/iiion-certain-genera-of-living-fishes-and-their-fossil-affinities1/1A5988C440B5849A3084EB482C163784|title=III. On Certain Genera of Living Fishes and their Fossil Affinities|first=Agnes|last=Crane|date=19 May 1877|journal=Geological Magazine|volume=4|issue=5|pages=209–219|via=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0016756800149143|bibcode=1877GeoM....4..209C }}
• Crane A. (1878) "The General History of the Cephalopoda, Recent and Fossil". Geological Magazine, 5, 487–499.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/abs/iithe-general-history-of-the-cephalopoda-recent-and-fossil1/4C9032AE101587E16447ED0A48666952|title=II. The General History of the Cephalopoda, Recent and Fossil|first=Agnes|last=Crane|date=19 November 1878|journal=Geological Magazine|volume=5|issue=11|pages=487–499|via=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0016756800151118|bibcode=1878GeoM....5..487C }}
• Crane, A. (1881) "Article on the Molluscoida (Brachiopoda and Bryozoa)". Cassell's Nat. Hist. vol. v. parts 56–57, 258–280.
• Crane, A. (1886) "On a Brachiopod of the genus Atretia" (A. Brazieri, Dav. MS.). Proceedings of the Zoological Society, London, p. 181.
• Crane, A. (1886–1888) Edition of Thomas Davidson's Posthumous Monograph of the Recent Brachiopoda. Transactions of the Linnæan Society, London, vol. iv. Zool. Three Parts.
• Crane A. (1893) "New Classifications of the Brachiopoda". Geological Magazine, 10, 318–323.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/abs/vinew-classifications-of-the-brachiopoda/9AC97A15162CD7EDE267B2038A6BF7EB|title=VI. New Classifications of the Brachiopoda|first=Agnes|last=Crane|date=19 July 1893|journal=Geological Magazine|volume=10|issue=7|pages=318–323|via=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0016756800163824|bibcode=1893GeoM...10..318C }}
• Crane A. (1895) "The Evolution of the Brachiopoda". Geological Magazine, 2, 65–75, 103–116.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/abs/iithe-evolution-of-the-brachiopoda/7AA949A55ED1CB09B65740CDAD971758|title=II. The Evolution of the Brachiopoda|first=Agnes|last=Crane|date=19 March 1895|journal=Geological Magazine|volume=2|issue=3|pages=103–116|via=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0016756800005951|bibcode=1895GeoM....2..103C }}

• Crane, Agnes (1892) "Ancient Mexican Heraldry", Science, 20, No. 503, 174–176.{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1765772|title=Ancient Mexican Heraldry|author=Crane, Agnes|year=1892|journal=Science|volume=20|issue=503|pages=174–176|doi=10.1126/science.ns-20.503.174 |jstor=1765772 |pmid=17752520 }}
• Crane, Agnes (1893) "Coyote or Bear?", Science, 22, No. 552, pp. 124–125.
• Crane, Agnes (1895) "The Submergence of Western Europe Prior to the Neolithic Period", Science, New Series, 2, No. 27, 2–4.

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Category:1852 births

Category:1932 deaths

Category:People from Peterborough

Category:19th-century British geologists

Category:British palaeontologists

Category:British malacologists

Category:English women geologists

Category:19th-century English women scientists

Category:English women non-fiction writers