Annie Elisabeth Law

Annie Elisabeth Law (1842–12 January 1889) was a British-American conchologist, who discovered 11 species and one genus of mollusks, but did not publish formal descriptions of them. She was also a dispatch rider for the Confederate army during the American Civil War and was tried in Knoxville as a confederate informer.

Personal life

Annie Law was born in 1842 in Carlisle, England, the first of three children of John Law. The family migrated to the United States in around 1850, settling in Maryville, Blount County, Tennessee. These she donated to the Smithsonian Institution. Law later resided at Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, where she died on 12 January 1889.

Law was also a dispatch rider for the Confederate army during the American Civil War. On 4 June 1864 she was arrested in Knoxville, and was tried there as a confederate informer.

Conchology

Law collected specimens in the mountainous regions of North Carolina and Tennessee. and other papers formally describing the species she discovered. Species she discovered include the following, two of which were named in her honor: Pleurobema oviforme (Conrad, 1834), previously known as Unio lawi Lea, 1871 Vitrizonites latissima, previously known as Vitrina latissima (J. Lewis, 1874 ) on Tusquita Bald Mountain, at an altitude of . Zonites acerra (Lewis, 1874 ) Zonites lawii