Home · Science · Sep 7 archive
Pioneering Fossil Hunter Honored with Blue Plaque
Confirmed
In Short: Dorothea Bate, a trailblazing fossil hunter and one of the first women to work at the National History Museum, has been recognized with a blue plaque at the museum in Tring, Hertfordshire.
Dorothea Bate, a pioneering fossil hunter and one of the first women to be employed by the National History Museum, has been honored with a national blue plaque at the museum in Tring, Hertfordshire. Claudia Kenyatta and Emma Squire, co-CEOs of Historic England, praised Bate's curiosity and contributions to understanding the natural world.
Born in 1878 with little formal education, Bate's passion for wildlife and nature led her to explore the countryside and caves around her home in Gloucestershire, where she collected fossils. In 2017, a blue plaque was dedicated to her at Napier House in Carmarthen, her birthplace.
Bate moved to the Natural History Museum in Tring during World War II and became the Officer-in-Charge in 1948, shortly before her 70th birthday. Heritage minister Baroness Twycross noted, 'This plaque ensures that her pioneering contributions to science receives the wider recognition it deserves.
What's confirmed
- She moved with her family to rural Gloucestershire as a young woman and spent hours exploring the surrounding countryside and caves, collecting fossils.
What's still developing
- A pioneering Welsh scientist who transformed understanding of prehistoric animals is to be honoured with a second blue plaque.
- According to the biograph compiled by the museum, she would travel through rough and inhospitable terrain, often wading through mud and water with her basic toolkit of hammer, nets and boxes, to reach remote caves where she collected fossils and bones.
- Historic England has described the paleontologist as one of the nation’s leading fossil hunters.