Gnarly Nature

The Frog Pond #24: Why did Victorian Women LOVE Seaweed?

Why did women in the mid- to late 1800s, including Queen Victoria, LOVE seaweed so much? Boots, scrapbooks, and old boys clubs.

Sarah L. Hawthorn

07 Dec 2024 — 7 min read

Photo by Stefan Sebök / Unsplash

It's officially 2 years of The Frog Pond! Where has the time gone!!

Looking back at my 1-year post, I changed the format to focus on the two main parts of this newsletter: Cool nature things and writing updates.

This year, I'd like to broaden the scope of my monthly topics. The research portion has always been fueled by whatever research I'm doing on my book projects - whether it's the fascinating properties of aluminum or a love letter to mushrooms. My book research often rabbit holes into all kinds of territory, including the humanities and especially history.

To be frank: I like researching lots of things and I'd love to share the most interesting research I've come across in a month, regardless of whether it fits into "nature" or not. This is an expansion, not a replacement. I love this newsletter and the encouragement I've received from readers here on this little silly-but-cited corner of the internet. I hope you stick around for more!

This month's post is a bridge between worlds: An exploration of seaweed, but also the cultural implications of women being sidelined to "safe" and "appropriate" scientific interests.

Women in the 'weeds

In the mid- to late 1800s, seaweed was a booming hobby. Collecting, drying, and pressing specimens of all shapes and colours held the imagination of Queen Victoria herself, as well as many other English women of the time¹. Why?

Biology was all the rage in general, though predominantly hobby'd by men. Scientists travelled the world in search of new species to study, and people of all classes got in on the natural science craze with cheaper microscopes and a wider railway line giving them access to smaller and larger discoveries, respectively¹.

But guess who couldn't enjoy the wonders of natural discovery! Societies dedicated to the cause, such as the Royal Society and the Linnaean Society, did not accept women into their ranks or even their meetings ¹. According to them, hunting was too dangerous and botany had all those diagrams labelled with plant genitalia, the scandal¹!

Enter seaweed. Or "algology". Seaweed was physically close to many Victorian women and wasn't seen as explicit like those darn flowers were. Evidence of the popularity includes many scrapbooks documenting seaweed samples¹.

Of books and boots

Margaret Gatty, a seaweed aficionado, began the hobby in 1848. She created an extensive compilation of seaweed prints called British Sea-Weeds, including over 200 specimens over 2 volumes¹. While women tended to wear their full outdoor dress while out collecting (petticoats and all), they also often wore men's boots. Gatty describes the recommendation, “Feel all the luxury of not having to be afraid of your boots. Feel all the comfort of walking steadily forward, the very strength of the soles making you tread firm.”¹ And yet Gatty was not a rebel. She stayed within her prescribed societal role, with contemporary beliefs on gender¹.

This small expansion, women in men's boots mucking around in the ocean to find seaweed, captures my heart. It's so practical--of course you'd want to wear boots while enjoying the messy part of your hobby! But the way that Gatty encourages the practice reads like such an alien concept compared to the women's footwear that was in vogue at the time. We're not even at trousers-level of gender equality, just an occasional boot now and then.

Purple Seaweed Prose

Atlas Obscura shares some of the descriptions used in British Sea-Weeds:

"[O]ne specimen is “delicately membranaceous,” while another is “crisp and somewhat rigid when first gathered.” Colors are lovingly described: “the finest crimson,” “rose-red,” “pinky towards the tips.”¹

I love the passion and care that's obvious through the descriptions.

Seaweed snapshots

Anna Atkins, considered the first female photographer, published the first book to use photographs as illustrations, which featured seaweed! "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions" (love the name) included photos like the one below of different species².

A photogram of Algae, made by Anna Atkins as part of her 1843 book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the first book composed entirely of photographic images. — By Atkins, Anna, 1799-1871 (New York Public Library)

In an 1881 book, Sea Mosses: A Collector's Guide and an Introduction to the Study of Marine Algae, the equipment needed for proper seaweed collection included:

"You should have a pair of pliers; a pair of scissors; a stick like a common cedar "pen stalk," with a needle driven into the end of it, or, in lack of that, any stick sharpened carefully; two or three large white dishes, like "wash bowls"; botanist's "drying paper;" or common blotting paper; pieces of cotton cloth, old cotton is the best; and the necessary cards or paper for mounting the plants on."³

Contributions not lost at sea(weed)

As Nathan Schmidt writes for the Indiana University ScIU blog about a book by Elizabeth Allom, with real seaweed samples in it, stored in their library:

"The work of [Elizabeth] Allom and her contemporaries played a significant role in opening up the broader field of marine ecology to deeper research. Algology textbooks from the time were generally written by men, but they relied heavily on the work done by women like Allom–sometimes crediting their contributions, sometimes not. [...] We would have no idea what a significant role women played in algology’s early days or how intricate the process of mounting algolical specimens was in the nineteenth century if we didn’t have seaweed in the library.⁴"

So here's to the seaweeders, especially the women hobbyists whose legacy continues through to today. Next time you're enjoying a seaside walk, keep an eye out for Gattya pinella, named after the prolific cataloguer¹.

Bonus round: Seaweed fast facts

Most of the oxygen on Earth comes from seaweed (roughly 70%!)⁵
There are 9x as many types of seaweed as there are plants on land (no wonder Gatty could fill a book series with 200 types out of over 12,000!) ⁵
The colour of seaweed depends on location: Green can be found in warm/tropical climates, brown at deeper depths, and red in cold water.⁵
Seaweed can grow extremely quickly. Macrocystis pyrifera, a giant kelp, can grow nearly 1 metre/3 feet per day!⁶

A word from a passing frog

Nearing the end of the year is always bittersweet to me. The good, while appreciated, begins to feel distant while the bad can linger on the edges of my tongue. And there's often an anxiety-inducing what else can I get done?? question.

But December is just as important a time itself as the rest of the year. Some more family time (especially with those visiting), reading time, and unwinding time, as well as some exciting behind-the-scenes developments I'm not ready to share yet :)

Writing/Publishing

I'm working on a new project! As I'm waiting for some edits for A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING, I'm having an absolute ball researching another historical horror novel. I've gone down some fascinating rabbit holes about the Spiritualism Movement, Nova Scotian folklore, Women's suffrage efforts in Canada, and the history of tarot cards.

I also want to highlight a series of articles I've been volunteering to write with Path 2 Publication, a blog run by a small group of writers to help querying authors:

Risks, Rejections, and Rewards
“Do it scared”: Taking creative risks in a risk-averse industry
How do you return to a book?
When Is It Time To Shelve Your Manuscript? (Group post)
What Are The Boons of Smaller and Mid-Sized Publishers? (Group post)
What Are Comps And Why Use Them? (Group post)
Advice For Long Querying Writers? (Group post)
How Do You Juggle The Writer Life With Other Responsibilities? (Group post)
Is Social Media Marketing Worth It? (Group post)

Keep an eye out for another article later this month!

Reading

My reading leaned more towards research and podcasts than books this month. I'm nearly done The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner though!

One more thing...

Thank you for reading this whole newsletter! Whether you're a new frog or you've been swimming in this pond for a couple years now, I so, so appreciate your support. My goal for the Frog Pond is to be a useful, fun collection of my research subjects that might make you a fun conversationalist at parties (who wouldn't want to hear about 1800s seaweed hunters??).

I'm proud of keeping up with this project, through good and bad, and I'm looking forward to where it can go from here!