Anna Birchall Hastings
{{Short description| English bryozoologist (1902–1977)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Anna Birchall Hastings
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| nationality = British
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1902|8|8}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1977|5|15|1902|8|8}} |
| birth_place = Mile End Old Town, London, England
| death_place = London, England
| fields = Bryozoology
| workplaces = British Museum
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| education = PhD
| alma_mater = Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
| thesis_title = Cheilostomatous Polyzoa from the vicinity of the Panama Canal, collected by Dr C. Crossland on the cruise of the S.Y., 'St.George' / Anna Birchall Hastings
| thesis_url = https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21669932050003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&lang=en_US&search_scope=SCOP_CAM_ALL&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=cam_lib_coll&query=any,contains,hastings%20zoology%20thesis&offset=0
| thesis_year = 1929
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| spouse = Henry Dighton Thomas
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Anna Birchall Hastings (1902-1977) was an English bryozoologist who described and classified numerous species of bryozoans, including both freshwater and marine forms. Her work significantly contributed to the understanding of bryozoan taxonomy and evolution.
Early life
Hastings was born on 8 August 1902 in Mile End Old Town, London, the daughter of Edwin Birchall Hastings (1860–1929) and his wife Therese (née Mundella) (1863–1943).1939 England and Wales Register, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/61596/images/tna_r39_0310_0310b_016?pId=74843750. accessed 15 April 2025
She studied at the University of Cambridge and in 1929 she was awarded a PhD in zoology{{cite journal | journal =Annals of Bryozoology | url = https://www.bryozoa.net/annals/annals1/annals_of_bryozoology_1_20_2002_wysejackson_spencerjones.pdf| title = From Rondelet to Stockholm: four centuries of bryozoological research | volume=1 | date=2002 | access-date= 15 April 2025 |page=363-381 }} for her thesis on "Cheilostomatous Polyzoa from the vicinity of the Panama Canal, collected by Dr C. Crossland on the cruise of the S.Y., 'St.George'".{{cite web | title = thesis| url = https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21669932050003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&lang=en_US&search_scope=SCOP_CAM_ALL&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=cam_lib_coll&query=any,contains,hastings%20zoology%20thesis&offset=0| access-date = 15 April 2025 |website = University of Cambridge Library }}
The British Museum
In 1927 she was appointed to a post in the Department of Zoology at the British Museum in London as the assistant to Sidney Frederic Harmer (1862–1950) who retired that year from the position of Director of the Museum.{{cite journal | journal = Geological Society, London, Special Publications| title=The quiet workforce: the various roles of women in geological and natural history museums during the early to mid-1900s| url =https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/full/10.1144/SP281.6 | first1 =Patrick N. Wyse |last1 = Jackson | first2= Mary E. Spencer | last2= Jones | date=2007| volume=281| access-date = 15 April 2025 | doi=10.1144/SP281}} Bryozoans formed one of Harmer's specialities and in 1935 Hastings became an assistant keeper in the museum with full responsibility for the Recent bryozoans.
On 1 June 1941 she married Henry Dighton Thomas, a palaeontologist who was also employed at the British Museum. Because of the Civil Service marriage bar that was then in place for women in the UK{{cite web | url =https://www.civilservant.org.uk/women-history.html#:~:text=As%20in%20so%20many%20other,over%2050%25%20of%20the%20total | title=Women in the Civil Service – History|via=www.civilservant.org.uk}}{{cite book|last=Hill|first=Kate|year=2016|title=Inside the museum: including or excluding women?', Women and Museums 1850–1914: Modernity and the Gendering of Knowledge|publisher=Manchester Scholarship Online|doi=10.7228/manchester/9780719081156.003.0002 |url=
https://books.google.com/books?id=1XC5DwAAQBAJ | access-date=1 May 2025}} she had to resign her position when she married, even though her new husband could remain in post. After her marriage she didn't change her work practices, continuing to work in an unpaid research capacity, as an Honorary Associate until 1961, and using her maiden name in professional circles after marrying.{{cite web | url = https://www.nhm.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=PX656 | title =Record | access-date = 15 April 2025 }}
During the War important parts of the bryozoa collection were evacuated to her house in Kew. One of the microscopes she used for her work at the British Museum is still kept in the institution.{{cite news | url =https://www.microbehunter.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/05/microbehunter_2013_04.pdf | work = MicrobeHunter Microscopy Magazine | date= April 2013 | first = Oliver | last = Kim | page=22-25 |title = Some microscopes displayed in the Science Museum in London | issn = 2220-4970 | access-date= 15 April 2025 }}
Research
One of her first major publications was on material collected from Panama area by Cyril Crossland during the cruise of 1924–1925.{{cite journal | journal = Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London |url = https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1929.tb01453.x | pages = 697–740 | title = Cheilostomatous Polyzoa from the Vicinity of the Panama Canal collected by Dr. C. Crossland on the Cruise of the S.Y. 'St. George' |date = 1929 |doi = 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1929.tb01453.x | access-date = 15 April 2025 |last1 = Hastings |first1 = Anna B. |volume = 99 |issue = 4 }} Hastings also worked on bryozoans from the 1928 Great Barrier Reef expedition{{cite book | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49517067#page/539/mode/1up | title=Scientific Reports / Great Barrier Reef Expedition 1928–29 | date=1931 }} and shortly before her marriage she completed a major monograph on the bryozoans from the Antarctic, collected during the Discovery expedition which involved the examination of over 2300 slides.{{cite journal | title = Polyzoa (Bryozoa) I. Scrupocellariidae, Epistomiidae, Farciminariidae, Bicellariellidae, Aeteidae, Scrupariidae | last = Hastings | first= A. B.| date =1943 | volume=22 | journal = Discovery Reports | pages = 301–510 | url= https://biostor.org/reference/59362 | access-date= 15 April 2025}} She later worked on the bryozoa of the English Lake District.{{cite web | url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16014 | title=British Museum (Natural History): Department of Zoology: Bryozoa Section: Correspondence | access-date= 15 April 2025 }}The Biology of Water Supply, 1937, reprinted 1948, British Museum Economic series no. 7a The British Museum records provide a more complete list of her publications.{{cite web | url = https://nhm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma999805122500002081&context=L&vid=44NHM_INST:44NHM_V1&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,%22anna%20b.%20hastings%22&offset=0 |title = Hastings Papers ; 1929–1974 – Natural History Museum UK (NHM) | access-date= 15 April 2025}}
She worked closely with Sir Sidney Frederic Harmer until his death in 1950, (she wrote his obituary for the Linnean Society){{cite journal | url = https://academic.oup.com/proceedingslinnean/article/163/3/250/2434533 | title= Obituaries: Sir Sidney Frederic Harmer | journal = Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London | volume= 163 | date =1952 | access-date= 15 April 2025}} and it was "Harmer’s express desire"{{cite journal | url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1951.0007 | doi=10.1098/rsbm.1951.0007 | title=Sidney Frederic Harmer, 1862-1950 | journal=Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society | date=1951 | volume=7 | issue=20 | pages=359–371 | access-date= 15 April 2025}} that Hastings should carry out the final editing of the fourth part of the report on bryozoa from the Dutch Siboga oceanographic expedition around the islands of Indonesia.{{ cite journal | journal = Siboga Expedition Reports | pages= 641–1147| title = The Polyzoa of the Siboga-Expedition part 4. Cheilostomata Ascophora II | date = 1957 | first = S. F. | last =Harmer }}
Through her research she engaged and corresponded with a number of eminent zoologists including D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson,{{cite web | website=University of St Andrews |url=https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/correspondence-from-a-b-hastings-to-darcy-wentworth-thompson/2054619 | title=Correspondence from A. B. Hastings to d'Arcy Wentworth Thompson | access-date= 15 April 2025}} Amy Elizabeth “Betty” Blagg,{{cite journal | url=https://ia801202.us.archive.org/30/items/biostor-283280/biostor-283280.pdf | doi=10.3099/MCZ36.1 | title=The Blagg Collection of California Bryozoa at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University | date=2017 | last1=Sears | first1=Mary A. B. | last2=Lenihan | first2=Jennifer Winifred | last3=Baldinger | first3=Adam J. | last4=Woollacott | first4=Robert M. | journal=Breviora | volume=556 | pages=1–12 | access-date= 15 April 2025 }} and Ray S. Bassler, with whom she developed a close friendship, which lasted over 30 years, exchanging family news and personal photographs, until Basler's death in 1961.{{cite journal | journal =Annals of Bryozoology | title =Bryozoan exchange: Bassler and Hastings |url= https://www.bryozoa.net/annals/annals2/annals_of_bryozoology_2_16_2008_spencerjones_sanner_thomas.pdf | volume=2 | date =2008 | first1=Mary E. Spencer | last1= Jones | first2= JoAnn | last2= Sanner | first3= Carmen S. | last3= Thomas | pages=413–420| access-date= 15 April 2025}}
Personal life
On 1 June 1941 she married Henry Dighton Thomas,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fyAmA4Zcj5IC&q=%22Anna+Birchall+Hastings+%22++thomas | title=English Dance and Song | date=October 1941 | publisher=English Folk Dance and Song Society | access-date= 15 April 2025 }} a palaeontologist who was also employed at the British Museum. A son, James Dighton Thomas was born on 3 September 1942.{{cite journal | journal =Annals of Bryozoology | url = https://www.bryozoa.net/annals/annals4/annals_of_bryozoology_4_11_2014_winston.pdf | title =Mary Dora Rogick: Mid-Century Nexus of Bryozoology |volume=4 | date=2014 | first= Judith E. |last = Winston |pages =195–229| access-date= 15 April 2025 }}
Hastings died on 15 May 1977.England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1904/images/46452_B294163-00206?pId=22346165. accessed 15 April 2025
Taxa named by Hastings
Taxa named by A.B. Hastings include:{{Cite web |url=http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=search |work=WoRMS taxon search |title=Authority begins: "Hastings" |publisher=World Register of Marine Species |accessdate=26 April 2025}}
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- Amastigia harmeri Hastings, 1943
- Amastigia vibraculifera Hastings, 1943
- Beania challengeri Hastings, 1943
- Beania inermis unicornis Hastings, 1943
- Beania livingstonei Hastings, 1943
- Beania scotti Hastings, 1943
- Brettiopsis triplex Hastings, 1943
- Bugula crosslandi Hastings, 1939
- Bugula cuspidata Hastings, 1943: synonym of Crisularia cuspidata (Hastings, 1943)
- Bugula expansa Hastings, 1939
- Bugula neritinoides Hastings, 1939
- Caberea angusta Hastings, 1943
- Caberea darwinii guntheri Hastings, 1943
- Caberea darwinii occlusa Hastings, 1943
- Caberea helicina Hastings, 1943
- Camptoplites asymmetricus Hastings, 1943
- Camptoplites atlanticus Hastings, 1943
- Camptoplites bicornis quadravicularis Hastings, 1943
- Camptoplites latus asperus Hastings, 1943
- Camptoplites latus striatus Hastings, 1943
- Camptoplites rectilinearis Hastings, 1943
- Camptoplites tenuispinus Hastings, 1943
- Caulibugula tuberosa Hastings, 1939
- Cellaria bassleri Hastings, 1947
- Cellaria scoresbyi Hastings, 1947
- Cellaria squamosa Hastings, 1947
- Cigclisula cautium Hastings, 1932
- Cornucopina ovalis Hastings, 1943
- Cornucopina ovalis versa Hastings, 1943
- Cornucopina zelandica Hastings, 1943
- Didemnum magnetae Hastings, 1931
- Ellisina antarctica Hastings, 1945
- Emma rotunda Hastings, 1939
- Emma triangula Hastings, 1939
- Emma watersi Hastings, 1939
- Erymophora Hastings, 1943: synonym of Bugulella Verrill, 1879
- Farciminellum antarcticum Hastings, 1943: synonym of Klugeflustra antarctica (Hastings, 1943)
- Himantozoum (Himantozoum) obtusum Hastings, 1943
- Himantozoum obtusum Hastings, 1943: synonym of Himantozoum (Himantozoum) obtusum Hastings, 1943
- Hippoporella gorgonensis Hastings, 1930: synonym of Lifuella gorgonensis (Hastings, 1930): synonym of Pleuromucrum gorgonense (Hastings, 1930)
- Hyalinella vaihiriae Hastings, 1929: synonym of Plumatella vaihiriae (Hastings, 1929)
- Klugella Hastings, 1943
- Klugella buski Hastings, 1943
- Leptoclinides lissus Hastings, 1931
- Menipea kempi Hastings, 1943
- Menipea zelandica Hastings, 1943
- Notoplites crassiscutus Hastings, 1943
- Notoplites uniserialis Hastings, 1943
- Onychocella alula Hastings, 1930
- Petralia litoralis Hastings, 1932: synonym of Sinupetraliella litoralis (Hastings, 1932)
- Polysyncraton magnetae Hastings, 1931
- Tubulipora lobifera Hastings, 1963
- Umbonula littoralis Hastings, 1944: synonym of Oshurkovia littoralis (Hastings, 1944)
- Umbonula ovicellata Hastings, 1944
- Valdemunitella tubulata Hastings, 1930: synonym of Retevirgula tubulata (Hastings, 1930)
- Zanclea protecta Hastings, 1930: synonym of Halocoryne protecta (Hastings, 1930)
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References
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Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Category:Employees of the Natural History Museum, London