Georgina King

Georgina King (1845-1932), was an Australian geologist and anthropologist.

Georgina King

Georgina King was born on 6 June 1845 in Fremantle, Western Australia, to George King, a Church of England clergyman from Ireland, and his wife Jane Mathewson.[1] Her brother Kelso King would also bring acclaim to the family.[2] In 1847, her family moved to Sydney. King's father, a fellow of St Paul's College, oversaw her education and encouraged her to read widely including books on evolution and natural history. Her family doctor, George Bennett, a keen naturalist, recommended texts on geology to her. Discouraged by her father and Bennett from marrying, King looked after a nephew and niece at Springwood from the 1870s until 1881, and then travelled to Britain and Europe.[1]

Scientific studies

After returning to Australia, King was active in the Women's Literary Society,[3] which was founded in 1889, along with friend Rose Scott.[1] King was an original member of the Women's Club. In 1888, King attended the inaugural meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She met many distinguished scientists through this meeting and later corresponded with R. L. Jack, who had done extensive geological surveys of Queensland and (Sir) Frederick McCoy of Victoria. Recalling the geological history she had been taught in her youth, and inspired by the work of McCoy and others, King proposed a 'Tertiary Period Catastrophism' theory to the wider scientific community.[1][4] When her paper on this theory was rejected by the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1892, King sent them to be published in newspapers like the Sydney Morning Herald.[5] Similarly she sent her papers to the University of Sydney and other scientists to consider. Her controversial ideas and claims to theories posed by other scientists, led to further ridicule.

King collected botanical specimens (at least 295) for Ferdinand von Mueller, from the Blue Mountains (1892-1893, 1895, 1897), Port Jackson (1893-1896), and various other parts of New South Wales and Queensland. She collected the type specimen of Pultenaea subternata.[6]

King published papers on anthropological subjects after 1900. She used some of her father's work on Aborigines to expand her ideas, and continued to elaborate on her geological theory of evolution.[1] She was elected a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society of Australasia, and published within its journal, Science of Man. From 1913 King corresponded with and financially supported, Daisy Bates,[7] another woman who felt frustrated by the scientific establishment.[1][4]

King volunteered with the Red Cross during World War I. She made dolls for patients of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children and was a prolific letter writer to the daily newspapers.[1]

King died on 7 June 1932 at Darling Point, Sydney, and was cremated.[1][8]

Legacy

King donated many specimens of natural science to the Australian Museum and Technological Museum of Sydney. Her papers are held by the State Library of New South Wales.[9]

Further reading

In 2012 Wakefield Press published a biography of King, Ginger for Pluck: The life and times of Miss Georgina King, by Jennifer M. T. Carter and Roger Cross.[10]

References
  1. Bygott, Ursula; Hooker, Claire. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  2. King, Hazel. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  3. "Women's Literary Society. - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) - 8 Jun 1893". Trove. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
  4. "Church Pioneering in Western Australia. - The First Anglican Church. The Late Dr. King's Work. (See Portraits, Page 24.) - Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954) - 4 Jun 1910". Trove. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
  5. King, Georgina (23 Jan 1909). "Earthquakes. - The Glacial Period. The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)". Trove. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
  6. Maroske, S. & Vaughan, A. (2014) "Ferdinand Mueller's female plant collectors: a biographical register", Muelleria 32: 92-172.
  7. "Corroborees as Travelling Shows. - The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1874 - 1954) - 3 Mar 1915". Trove. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
  8. "Miss Georgina King. - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)". Trove. 11 Jun 1932. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
  9. "Georgina King papers 1899-1930 MLMSS 273". State Library of New South Wales.
  10. Carter, Jennifer M. T.; Cross, Roger, (author.) (2012), Ginger for pluck : the life and times of Miss Georgina King, Wakefield Press, ISBN 978-1-74305-171-9CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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