Joan Eyles

Joan Mary Biggs was born on 15 June 1907, in Neath. She grew up in Bridgend and attended St Winefride's Convent school in Swansea.{{Cite journal |last=Thackray |first=J.C. |date=1987 |title=J M Eyles (1907 - 1986) - an obituary and bibliography |journal=Archives of Natural History |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=261–264|doi=10.3366/anh.1987.14.3.261 }}

Biggs studied chemistry and geology at University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire from 1924 and graduated in 1928.

Biggs enrolled on a PhD at King's College London to study Scottish igneous rocks. One year later, she met Victor Eyles, whom she married after three months. Joan Eyles, as she then became, completed her research but did not take her viva because of "domestic pressures" and the need to travel frequently to follow her husband as he worked as a field geologist for the H.M. Geological Survey.{{Cite journal |last=Torrens |first=H. S. |date=July 1987 |title=Joan Mary Eyles, née Biggs: 1907–1986 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/abs/joan-mary-eyles-nee-biggs-19071986/64A846C1EA2E93296C164A42B81C657A |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |language=en |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=349–350 |doi=10.1017/S0007087400023992 |s2cid=144482547 |issn=1474-001X|url-access=subscription }}

Eyles developed a keen interest in the history of geology and began to collect books and maps.{{Cite book |last=Buchwald |first=Jed Z. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZQM_bzvj3cC&dq=joan+eyles+history+of+science&pg=PA168 |title=A Master of Science History: Essays in Honor of Charles Coulston Gillispie |date=2012-01-05 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-94-007-2626-0 |language=en}} After the war, Eyles contributed centenary noteices of geologists to Nature.

Eyles and her husband were founder members of the British Society for the History of Science in May 1947.{{Cite web |date=Jul 9, 2011 |title=Butler-Eyles Travel Grants |url=https://www.bshs.org.uk/grants/butler-eyles-travel-grants |accessdate=Feb 25, 2021}}{{Cite journal |last=Browne |first=Janet |date=March 1997 |title=Officers and council members of the British Society for the History of Science, 1947–97 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/abs/officers-and-council-members-of-the-british-society-for-the-history-of-science-194797/515E894F843F3D8466B8BA9F446BC2FC |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |language=en |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=77–89 |doi=10.1017/S0007087496002919 |s2cid=145396716 |issn=1474-001X|url-access=subscription }}

Eyles conducted "meticulous" research on William Smith.{{Cite journal |last=Eyles |first=Joan M. |date=1967 |title=William Smith: The Sale of His Geological Collection to the British Museum |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/EYLWST |journal=Annals of Science |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=177–212 |doi=10.1080/00033796700203276|url-access=subscription }}

Eyles became a member of the History of Earth Sciences Society and the Society for the History of Natural History.{{Cite book |last1=Haines |first1=Catharine M. C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HftdjMNDvwIC&dq=joan+eyles+history+of+science&pg=PA93 |title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950 |last2=Stevens |first2=Helen M. |date=2001 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-090-1 |language=en}}

Eyles donated her and her husband's book collection to the University of Bristol.{{Cite web |title=Eyles Collection - Archives Hub |url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb3-dm1186 |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk}}

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Category:1907 births

Category:British historians of science

Category:1986 deaths

Category:20th-century British geologists

Category:British book and manuscript collectors

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