Susan Finnegan

{{short description|British arachnologist and zoologist (1903–1995)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Susan Finnegan

| honorific_suffix = FLS

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| image =

| image_size =

| image_upright =

| landscape =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1903|10|20|df=y}}

| birth_place = Belfast

| death_date = {{death date and age|1995|6|20|1903|10|20|df=y}}

| death_place =

| death_cause =

| resting_place =

| resting_place_coordinates =

| other_names =

| siglum =

| pronounce =

| citizenship =

| nationality =

| fields = Zoology

| workplaces = British Museum (Natural History)

| patrons =

| alma_mater = Queen's University Belfast (BSc)
Newnham College, Cambridge (PhD)

| thesis_title = Report on the Brachyura collected by the S.Y. 'St George' on the east and west coasts of Central America (PhD)

| thesis_url =

| thesis_year = 1930

| doctoral_advisor =

| academic_advisors =

| doctoral_students =

| notable_students =

| known_for = Work on Acari, spiders and scorpions

| awards =

| author_abbrev_bot =

| author_abbrev_zoo =

| spouse = Walter Campbell Smith (m. 1936; died 1988)

| partner =

| children =

| parents =

| father =

| mother =

| relatives =

| signature =

| signature_type =

| signature_alt =

| website =

| footnotes =

}}

Susan Finnegan (20 October 1903 – 20 June 1995) was a British zoologist, who specialised in the study of mites and ticks. She was the first woman appointed to a scientific post at the Natural History Museum, London, in 1927, and was the first woman to describe and name a new genus of scorpion, Apistobuthus. Two species of scorpion have been named in her honour.{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40233839|title=Revised Diagnosis and Redescription of Apistobuthus susanae (Scorpiones, Buthidae)|author1=Navidpour, Shahrokh|author2=Lowe, Graeme|year=2009|journal=The Journal of Arachnology|volume=37|issue=1|pages=45–59|doi=10.1636/H08-44.1 |jstor=40233839 }} Finnegan was required to resign her post at the Natural History Museum in 1936, in order to marry her fellow museum worker Walter Campbell Smith.{{cite web|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/40acbb6f-6b5f-42b4-b75d-4cf24e370a79|title=British Museum (Natural History): Department of Zoology: Arachnida Section: Correspondence}}{{cite journal|last1=Wyse Jackson|first1=Patrick N.|last2=Spencer Jones|first2=Mary E.|year=2007|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/epdf/10.1144/SP281.6|journal=Geological Society, London, Special Publications|volume=281|issue=1 |pages=97–113|doi=10.1144/SP281.6|bibcode=2007GSLSP.281...97W |url-access=subscription}}

Career

Finnegan was born in Belfast in October 1903. She was the youngest daughter of John Maxwell Finnegan and Susanna Wilson Dobbin. One of her brothers, Robert Thompson Finnegan, died during World War 1 near Saint Quentin in March 1918.{{Cite web|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205294428|title=Driver Robert Thompson Finnegan|website=Imperial War Museums}} Her other brother, Thomas Finnegan, was later president of Selly Oak Colleges.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw100800|title=Thomas Finnegan – National Portrait Gallery|website=www.npg.org.uk}}{{cite web|url=https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Eagle/Eagle%20Volumes/1960s/1965/Eagle_1965_Easter.pdf|title=The Eagle|via=St John's College|date=May 1965|pages=207}}

Finnegan was educated at Victoria College, Belfast, and then at Queen's University Belfast where she graduated with a BSc. She then studied at Newnham College, Cambridge as a research student, from 1925 to 1927.{{cite book|title=Newnham College Register, 1871–1950: Volume II, 1924–1950|pages=422}} She completed her doctoral studies in 1928, and was awarded a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1930, with a thesis on crabs collected by the English zoologist Cyril Crossland on the St George expedition to the South Pacific in 1924.{{cite web|last=Rosie|first=Heather|url=https://bl.iro.bl.uk/concern/datasets/10cc13f9-797d-41f2-a7e2-d29f4306133e?locale=en|year=2023|title=UK Doctoral Thesis Metadata from EThOS|via=British Library}} She published this work in 1931.{{Cite journal|url=https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-abstract/37/255/607/2671051?redirectedFrom=fulltext|title=Report on the Brachyura collected in Central America, the Gorgona and Galapagos Islands, by Dr. Crossland on the ' St. George ' Expedition to the Pacific, 1924–25.|first=Susan|last=Finnegan|date=5 November 1931|journal=Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology|volume=37|issue=255|pages=607–673|doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1931.tb02367.x|url-access=subscription}}

In July 1927, Finnegan was appointed assistant keeper in the department of zoology at the Natural History Museum,{{Cite web|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33291/page/4340|title=Page 4340 | Issue 33291, 5 July 1927 | London Gazette | The Gazette|website=www.thegazette.co.uk}} where she was head of the arachnids section from September 1927 to July 1936. She was the first woman appointed to a post at the Natural History Museum, London. In this role, she worked extensively on the Acari (mites and ticks), as well as on spiders and scorpions. She published a number of scientific papers on these topics, including the description of three new species of mites that she found on spiders, snakes and sea lions.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/136186b0|title=Rarity of the Archaic Arachnids, Podogona (Ricinulei)|first=Susan|last=Finnegan|date=5 August 1935|journal=Nature|volume=136|issue=3431|pages=186|via=www.nature.com|doi=10.1038/136186b0|bibcode=1935Natur.136..186F }}{{Cite journal|url=https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1933.tb01603.x|title=25. A new Species of Mite parasitic on the Spider Liphistius malayanus Abraham, from Malaya|first=Susan|last=Finnegan|date=5 June 1933|journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London|volume=103|issue=2|pages=413–417|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1933.tb01603.x|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite journal|url=https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1931.tb01066.x|title=64. On a new Species of Mite of the Family Heterozerconidæ parasitic on a Snake.|first=Susan|last=Finnegan|date=5 December 1931|journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London|volume=101|issue=4|pages=1349–1357|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1931.tb01066.x|url-access=subscription}}{{cite journal|last=Finnegan|first=S.|year=1934|title=On a new species of mite of the family Halarachnidae from the Southern sea lion|journal=Discovery Reports|volume=8|pages=319–328}} She gave regular public talks on spiders and scorpions on Sunday afternoons at the Natural History Museum.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/135080a0|title=Forthcoming Events|date=1 January 1935|journal=Nature|volume=135|issue=3402|pages=80|via=www.nature.com|doi=10.1038/135080a0|bibcode=1935Natur.135Q..80. }}{{Cite journal|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/136616b0|title=Societies and Academies|date=1 October 1935|journal=Nature|volume=136|issue=3441|pages=616–617|via=www.nature.com|doi=10.1038/136616b0|bibcode=1935Natur.136R.616. }}

Finnegan was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1928.{{Cite web|url=https://www2.calmview.co.uk/Linnean/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=DA/ENG/1/CR/141&pos=1|title=Search Results|website=www2.calmview.co.uk}}

New genus of scorpion

In 1932, Finnegan described three specimens of a new scorpion that had been collected by the British explorer Bertram Thomas from the Rub' al-Khali in the southern Arabian peninsula. She recognised that these specimens all had a unique disc-shaped abdominal segment, not previously seen in scorpions, and assigned these specimens to a new genus, Apistobuthus. It transpired that all three of the specimens were immature, and it was not until 1960 that an adult female scorpion of this genus was described, from specimens collected by Wilfred Thesiger in Wadi Andhur, Oman.{{cite journal|first=Susan|last=Finnegan|year=1932|title=Report on the Scorpions collected by Mr. Bertram Thomas in Arabia|journal= Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society|volume=38|number=258|pages=91–98|doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1932.tb00695.x }}. Finnegan was the first female scientist to describe a new genus of scorpion. In recognition of her contributions to the study of scorpions, Finnegan has had two scorpions named in her honour, Hottentotta finneganae,{{cite journal|last=Kovafik|first=F|year=2007|title=A revision of the genus Hottentotta Birula, 1908, with descriptions of four new species (Scorpiones, Buthidae)|journal=Euscorpius|volume=2007|issue=58|pages=1–107|doi=10.18590/euscorpius.2007.vol2007.iss58.1}} and Apistobuthus susanae.{{cite journal|url=https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Ent-Mitt-Zool-Mus-Hamburg_12_0237-0244.pdf|last=Lourenco|first=Wilson R.|year=1998|title=A new species of Apistobuthus Finnegan, 1932 (Chelicerata, Scorpiones, Buthidae) from Iran|journal=Entomologische Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum Hamburg|volume=12|pages=237–244}}

Shield-tailed Scorpion.jpg | Apistobuthus pterygocercus

File:Figure 30 Hottentotta finneganae, sp. nov., dorsal view, male holotype.png | Hottentotta finneganae

Apistobuthus susanae in Scorpions of the State of Kuwait.png | Apistobuthus susanae

Marriage and family

Finnegan married Walter Campbell Smith in 1936. Campbell Smith worked in the department of mineralogy of the museum, and Finnegan was required to resign her post in order to marry, as a consequence 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|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://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719081156.003.0002| access-date=11 November 2024}} Finnegan continued to use her maiden name in professional circles after marrying.{{cite journal|last=Finnegan|first=Susan|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/157326a0.pdf|title=Obituary. Dr A C Oudemans|journal=Nature|volume=157|pages=326–327|year=1946|doi=10.1038/157326a0 }}{{cite book|last=Finnegan|first=Susan|year=1945|title=Acari as agents transmitting typhus in India, Australasia and the Far East.|pages=78|publisher=Economic Series, British Museum (Natural History)}}

Finnegan had a son and daughter, and seven grandchildren. Her husband died in 1988 at the age of 101{{cite journal|url=https://gem-a.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/JoG1989_21_8.pdf|journal=Journal of Gemmology|title=Dr Walter Campbell Smith (1887–1988) an appreciation|volume=21|year=1989|pages=517–518}} and Finnegan died on 20 June 1995.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/751823040/ |title=Deaths Susan Campbell-Smith (nee Finnegan) |page=18 |date=22 June 1995 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=7 November 2024}}

References

Category:20th-century British women scientists

Category:20th-century British zoologists

Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge

Category:British arachnologists

Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London

Category:1903 births

Category:1995 deaths

Category:Alumni of Queen's University Belfast

Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge

Category:People educated at Victoria College, Belfast

Category:People associated with the Natural History Museum, London