19th century lady naturalist victorian walking dresses (for the doing of science)

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One of the 19th century lady naturalist's Victorian secrets was her dress, such as the above (British walking dress, circa 1830, from the collections at The Met). As these things go, it's a pretty simple day dress for sauntering, a la Thoreau's essay On Walking which @humansandnature and I agree is one of the best essays about walking ever.

But imagine the doing of scientific natural history or hiking to Lyme Regis to dig for fossils in yards of fabric! They did. See the BBC's audio slideshow "Jurassic Women," including lady naturalist early paleontologist Mary Anning.

"Mary Anning is probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology" said Stephen Jay Gould.

Mary Anning at Lyme Regis
 in a Victorian walking dress.

Nineteenth century early women in science might have had to wear seven layers of clothing. And were up to their ears in hoops, bustles, and petticoats. And everyone was always dying of something. See Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering, lest you think the 19th century was all teacake.

Wearing petticoats and corsets is not for me. What inspires me to emulate the 19th century lady naturalists is their persistence. Nevertheless in petticoats, they persisted -- in natural history, in science.  They gathered field notes and fossils in walking dresses better suited to sitting pretty.

What I'm going for in dressing up to tell the stories of 19th century lady naturalists is a semi-historical hagiographic #cosplay. But so far all I have in my Victorian costume box is a white lace collared button-down that I (score!) found at Savers.