DORSET Museum & Art Gallery is launching a fundraising campaign to enhance and expand its forthcoming Mary Anning – Fossil Hunter exhibition, which will run from 30th January to 2nd May 2027, celebrating the life and legacy of the pioneering palaeontologist 180 years after her death. This landmark exhibition, which will have a programme of talks, family activities, workshops, school visits and other features, has been curated by bestselling author Tracy Chevalier, the Dorset0based novelist whose novel, Remarkable Creatures, is a a wonderful evocation of the life and world of the Lyme Regis-born fossil hunter.
The museum is seeking support from individuals, businesses and organisations to make the most of this significant opportunity and create an even richer experience for visitors. Among the events which the fund-raising will support will be specialist talks from leading palaeontologists and historians, exploring Mary’s discoveries and their impact on scientific thinking, interactive sessions allowing visitors of all ages to engage with fossil hunting and palaeontology, funding to make the exhibition accessible to school groups, bringing Mary’s story to young people across Dorset and beyond.
The funds will also help with professional conservation work to preserve and present Mary’s discoveries and related artefacts at their best.
Claire Dixon, the museum’s executive director, says: “The Mary Anning exhibition is a significant moment for Dorset Museum & Art Gallery. Mary’s story – of a working-class woman from Lyme Regis whose discoveries transformed scientific understanding – is genuinely inspiring. With support from our community, we can create programming and experiences that do justice to her remarkable legacy and reach far wider audiences than we could otherwise.”
Mary Anning (1799–1847) was a skilled fossil hunter whose ground-breaking discoveries in the early 1800s revealed a world of extinct marine reptiles at a time when few people believed animals could become extinct. Her work fundamentally changed scientific thinking about the age of the world – yet as a woman from a poor working-class family with little formal education, she was not officially allowed to take part in scientific discourse.
Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and Remarkable Creatures, is a trustee of Dorset Museum & Art Gallery and has curated the exhibition drawing on her long fascination with Mary’s story.
The exhibition explores two key areas of her life: the beach where she hunted for fossils, and the town of Lyme Regis where she lived and worked. Visitors will see striking fossils found by Mary and others, including an impressive cast of the first Ichthyosaur skull discovered by 12-year-old Mary and her older brother Joseph, alongside letters, drawings and hands-on displays explaining the social and scientific context of her era.
Tracy Chevalier says: “Mary Anning’s moment has arrived. More and more books are being written about her, a statue of her has been erected in Lyme Regis, and she is on the school curriculum, inspiring students far and wide to become citizen scientists. I am delighted to be working on an exhibition that will celebrate her work and her legacy. I hope our fundraising will ensure that many young people – and their schools and families – will get the chance to visit.”
To find out more about the exhibition, visit https://www.dorsetmuseum.org/whats-on/mary-anning-fossil-hunter/
To support the Mary Anning fundraiser, visit https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/30843#!/DonationDetails or contact enquiries@nulldorsetmuseum.org