Georgina King

Georgina King (1845-1932), was an Australian geologist and anthropologist.

Early life Georgina King was born on 6 June 1845 in Fremantle, Western Australia, to George King, a Church of England clergyman from Ireland, and his wife Jane Mathewson. She is their second daughter, and her brother Kelso King would also bring acclaim to the family. In 1849, her family moved to Sydney. King's father, a fellow of St Paul's College, oversaw her education and encouraged her to read widely including books on evolution and natural history. It is in Sydney where she developed her interest in fossils, first introduced to her by a clergyman and amateur geologist named William Branwhite Clarkson. Later on, her family doctor, George Bennett, a keen naturalist, recommended texts on geology for her to read. So, like many of the young women during the 19th century, she was educated from home. Discouraged by her father and Bennett from marrying, King looked after a nephew and niece at Springwood from the 1870s until 1881, and then travelled to Britain and Europe. which was founded in 1889, along with friend Rose Scott. When her paper on this theory was rejected by the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1892, King sent them to be published in newspapers like the Sydney Morning Herald. Similarly she sent her papers to the University of Sydney and other scientists to consider. Her controversial ideas and claims to theories posed by other scientists, led to further ridicule.

Her theory of "Tertiary Period Catastrophism" described mineral deposits and all geological structures as having been created by forces of heat, magnetism, and electricity which had been produced through "volcanic action". King believed that other scientists were trying to steal her ideas. She Believed that Edgeworth David and E. F. Pittman wished to claim her theory as their own when it was rejected in 1892 by the Society of New South Wales. She also thought that Einstein had stolen ideas of relativity she had created. Kings eventually reached out to T. H. Huxley in order to get a response to her theories, one of these theories being that diamonds were once marine organisms.

King collected botanical specimens (at least 295) for Ferdinand von Mueller, from the Blue Mountains (1892-1893, 1895, 1897), Port Jackson (1893-1896), and various other parts of New South Wales and Queensland. She collected the type specimen of Pultenaea subternata. She traveled to study rock formations in Ireland, England, and other parts of Europe in the early 1880s.

King published papers on anthropological subjects after 1900. She used some of her father's work on Aboriginal people to expand her ideas, and continued to elaborate on her geological theory of evolution. another woman who felt frustrated by the scientific establishment.

Legacy

King donated many specimens of natural science to the Australian Museum and Technological Museum of Sydney. She also donated over 300 specimens to the National Herbarium of Victoria. Her papers are held by the State Library of New South Wales.

King was an author of numerous pamphlets including, "The Mineral Wealth of New South Wales", "The Discovery of Gold and How It Was Found", "Two Stone Ages, Australia", and "The Antiquities of the Australian Aborigines" these appearing in the Sydney Morning Herald. Nearly 300 of King's specimens are currently located at The National Herbarium of Victoria.