Alice Wilson

Dr. Alice Evelyn Wilson was the first woman in Canada to achieve a successful career in geology and is credited as Canada’s first female geologist and paleontologist. Born in Coburg, Ontario in 1881, Wilson and her brothers spent their childhoods examining Ordovician limestones while camping and canoeing around the town. She came from a background of academic family members, and so it had always seemed natural that she would put her analytical mind to good use pursuing higher education.

Wilson first chose to study languages at Victoria University in 1901 with the intention of becoming a teacher. This was the only career Wilson could imagine for a well-educated woman at the end of the Victorian Era, though she did not have a natural talent or enthusiasm for the subject. In 1904, her father’s death combined with a period of mental illness (which would hinder her career twice or more during her lifetime) caused her to fail two of her classes and miss some of her final exams, leaving her unable to complete her degree. She resolved that she would pursue a scientific career instead, and when she became well enough she began working in the mineralogy collections of the University of Toronto as a clerk. Her duties were both administrative and curatorial and provided base training in geological identification. In 1909, she left U of T for the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in Ottawa, where she would dedicate her life until 1963. She began her career as an assistant in invertebrate paleontology, but when she finished her Bachelor’s degree she became qualified for the position of Museum Assistant. This made her the first woman at the GSC to hold a position higher than that of a clerk.

Wilson was determined to become an official geologist with the Survey and to conduct field expeditions with her male peers.  Extensive fieldwork would involve days to months on end, sleeping in tents and surrounded by men. The director of the GSC at this time stated;

“Physically and sexually Miss Wilson is not fitted for any but the lightest sort of field work, and only in settled districts. An undesirable condition would be created by attempting to fit her for field work.”

This did not deter Wilson however, so her realm of expertise became the geology surrounding Ottawa, usually on day trips or staying alone at bed and breakfasts. Her range expanded when she requested to be given a bicycle, which she then attached to the back of a car she purchased with her own funds. She fought her superiors to be allowed to stay alone in boarding houses and hotels at an inexpensive cost to the Survey and published the culmination of her years of fieldwork in a GSC bulletin published in 1921.

Wilson had spent her first 10 years with the Survey asking for paid educational leave to obtain her Ph.D., which would have been granted had she been male, and which would have qualified her for the high-level position of Geologist (in 1919 Wilson had been reclassified to Assistant Paleontologist). One of the excuses for not granting her leave was that she was indispensable when it came to fossil identification, and in 1926 the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) used this to lobby to allow her to use the grant that she had won through the Federation. The Director of the Survey at the time, W. H. Collins had denied her leave every step of the way, and even though he eventually succumbed to the demands of the CFUW, he only granted unpaid leave to Wilson, whereas male scientists at the GSC received paid leave to pursue higher education.

Alice Wilson, image courtesy science.ca http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=274

Wilson completed her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1929 at the age of 48 and returned to the GSC where she did not receive a pay increase for another 7 years. In 1940 the Survey appointed her as an Associate Geologist, and though she was forced to retire in 1946 at the age of 65, Wilson kept her office at the GSC and continued to conduct fieldwork, study, lecture, mentor, and publish both scientific papers and a children’s book on geology. Alice Wilson actually retired in 1963, just months before she passed away in 1964. Throughout her prolific career, Wilson had personally mentored and advocated on behalf of Canadian women at the start of their geological careers, including Drs. Helen Belyea and Frances Wagner, though her influence and inspiration continue today.

The Earth Beneath Our Feet, Alice Wilson’s book for children.

Guest post submitted by Brigid Christison

Brigid is the founder of PalaeoPoems.com (@PalaeoPoems on Twitter), an anthology of palaeo-themed poetry through history.

Images courtesy science.ca and artist Chris Cran, whose interpretation of Alice’s portrait featured in a recent Royal Canadian Geographic Society exhibit. You can read a little more about Alice in the RCGS Fellows Journal.

There are some additional images and cool cartoons of Alice’s life and work over at https://massivesci.com/articles/alice-wilson-geology-paleontology-science-hero/

Edited by Brenna