Ida Slater: A Collection Researcher in a Male World at the Beginning of the 20th Century

'Ida Lilian Slater (1881-1969) was one of the first women to work as a geologist in a male w·orld, and although her career was short, she made important contributions to the Early Palaeozoic of Wales and Scotland. Her main work was based on a col lection of a group of fossil scyphozoan polyps gathered not by her but by another significant woman, Elizabeth Anderson , widely known as Mrs. Robert Gray (1831-1924). The majority of this col lection is kept at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, and the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. She worked in the former one for two years describing species and comparing specimens for her monograph on British conulariids. Although her work was based not only on this group, she will be remembered by her important contribution to the conulariids through collections. The NHM collection is considered the best in the world in terms of diversity and the second best in its number of specimens, while the Sedgwick Museum has a smal ler co llection that is still considered the second best in diversity and number of specimens in the United l