Mary Winearls Porter

Mary “Polly” Winearls Porter (July 26, 1886 - November 25, 1980) was an English crystallographer and geologist, known for her contributions to the English crystallography field and publications about ancient Roman architecture.

Personal life

Mary “Polly” Winearls Porter was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk in 1886. Born to Robert Porter, an international journalist for the Times and Alice Porter, Mary enjoyed the typical childhood for a young girl at the time. Education for women was not fully accepted at the time, so although Porter did receive a basic education in reading and writing at home, she was never formally educated during her childhood.^[1]

During her teen years, her family had moved to Rome for her father’s work and required a long stay in the city due to her mother becoming ill. While in Rome Porter began to collect Roman artifacts and developed her interest into ancient Roman architecture and society.^[1][2] Teaching herself, Porter developed a rudimentary understanding of the basic of geology and continued to research the various Roman architecture and stones until her family moved back to England. Her brothers were impressed with her potential and suggested to their parents that she should be given a formal education, they refused however.^[2]

After returning to England Porter became fascinated by the Corsi collection of antique marbles in the Oxford Museum. Here she meets Henry Miers a Professor of Mineralogy at the University, who was impressed by her frequent visits and passion and tasked her with translating the Corsi Collection from Italian to English.^[1]

Following her retirement, Porter continued to be active within Somerville, often participating in the college’s fundraisers and events.^[3]

Career

Porter’s career first began at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where she translated various pieces of the Corsi Collection from Italian to English.

With correspondence to William Brindley, co-director of Farmer & Brindley, an ancient stone collector and contractor, and her access to the ancient stone catalog at the museum, Porter was able to publish her first book, “What Rome was Built With: A Description of the Stones Employed in Ancient Times for its Building and Decoration” in 1907.^[1]

Following this success, Porter was personally tutored by Miers, who wanted her to go to university for a formal education.^[3] Her parents continued to disallow this, and it was only in 1918, 11 years after publishing her first book, that Porter would earn her Bachelor of Science from the University of Oxford. During the summer of 1913, Mary returned to the USA to work with pioneering geologist Florence Bascom at Bryn Mawr College. She returned to the UK to take up a scholarship at Somerville College, Oxford and finally in 1932 was awarded a Doctor of Science degree. She went on to be an influential crystallographer, working with Dorothy Hodgkin and co-editing with R. C. Spiller the Barker Index of Crystals.^[4] A year later, Porter was appointed to the Mary Carlisle Fellowship at Somerville College.

Porter continued her research in crystallography well throughout her life, until the year 1959. During these years, Porter was a member of the Somerville College Council from 1937 to 1947 and became an honorary research fellow in the following year of 1948.^[3] She was also a council member for the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain from 1918 to 1921, 1929 to 1932 and a fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America from 1921 to 1927.^[3]

When her mentor, Henry Miers, took leave, Porter attended a number of academic institutions, but began her most major work with fellow geologist, Florence Bascom. It was here that Porter began training as a crystallographer and was soon put into contact with Victor Goldschmidt, at the University of Heidelberg. Soon after Porter would begin working with Dorothy Hodgkin.

Porter was at the forefront of emerging crystallography technologies, quickly embracing and contributing to the new era of X-ray crystallography. She was involved in publishing a number of research articles concerning X-Ray crystallography in journals such as Mineralogical Magazine, American Mineralogist, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Nature and Acta Crystallographica and continued to make contributions to the Corsi Collection at Oxford.^[3]

Major Publications

Porter’s 1907 book What Rome was Built With: A Description of the Stones Employed in Ancient Times for its Building and Decoration is still used today by geologists and archaeologists as a reference on what stones were used to create Roman architecture.^[1] She is also known as being a co editor of the Barker Index of Crystals.

References

External links

• Works by or about Mary Winearls Porter at Internet Archive