Eliza Maria Gordon-Cumming

Eliza Maria, Lady Gordon-Cumming ( Campbell; 1795 – 21 April 1842) was a Scottish aristocrat, horticulturalist, palaeontologist and scientific illustrator. Lady Gordon-Cumming collected and studied Devonian fish fossils from the Old Red Sandstone of Morayshire, Scotland. She amassed a large and well-known collection which she illustrated, along with her daughter Lady Anne Seymour. Lady Gordon-Cumming worked with other palaeontologists and geologists of the time including Louis Agassiz, William Buckland and Roderick Murchison.

Biography Early life Lady Gordon-Cumming was born Eliza Maria Campbell in 1795 in Inveraray to Lady Charlotte Campbell (later Lady Charlotte Bury) and Colonel John Campbell. Her mother was a diarist and novelist and father a soldier and politician.

Palaeontological research Lady Gordon-Cumming was a skilled painter and keen horticulturalist who took up the study of the fossils on her Altyre estate near the Moray Firth around 1839. and

...collected these remains and distributed them amongst geologists with the greatest liberality. Lady Cumming had studied the remains with great care, and prepared a series of drawings of all the most perfect specimens with a precision of detail and artistic talent, which few naturalists can hope to attain"

After his visit to Altyre, Agassiz named a species Cheirolepis cummingae (also sometimes spelled cummingii) in honour of Cumming. This species name was later discovered to be a synonym of Cheirolepis trialli. Many of the fossils in Cumming's collection were personally identified by Agassiz, and the collection is now held by the National Museum of Scotland, the Natural History Museum, London, and the University of Neuchatel. Francis Hastings Toone Gordon-Cumming (1842–1883) Anne Seymour Conway Baker Cresswell (d. 1858) Mary Elizabeth Gordon-Cumming Henry Gordon-Cumming (b. 1822) John Randolph Gordon-Cumming (1826–1866) William Gordon Gordon-Cumming (1829–1898) Adelaide Eliza Gordon-Cumming (d.1870) Alice Henrietta Gordon-Cumming (d. 1859) Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming (26 May 1837 – 4 September 1924) travel writer and painter Eleanora Gordon-Cumming (b. 1842 d. 1889)

Death During her 13th pregnancy Gordon-Cumming was impatient to get back to her studies, writing to Roderick Murchison "I am breathless to be at work again." However, she died on 21 April 1842 due to complications following the birth.