Marion I. Newbigin

Marion Isabel Newbigin (1869 – 20 July 1934) was a Scottish geographer, biologist and academic author. She was noted for her book Animal Geography, a key work in the field of animal geography/zoogeography, and as editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine.

Early life and education

Newbigin was born at Alnwick, Northumberland the daughter of local pharmacist James Lesslie Newbigin. She had four sisters and three brothers. She and all of her sisters were ardent feminists, and two of them also had academic careers. Universities in Scotland did not admit women, so she took courses at the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women, a private organisation that offered lectures by the faculty of the University of Edinburgh; at University College, Aberystwyth, in Wales; and at the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, once it was formed. Finally, she moved to the University of London, where in 1893 she received a BSc, and in 1898 a PhD. While a student in Edinburgh she started to work as an assistant for zoologist J. Arthur Thomson, then a lecturer at the School of Medicine for Women, who was a great influence on her.

Scientific career

While a student in London, Newbigin began conducting research, based at the laboratories of the Royal College of Physicians. Her research was wide ranging and included the colouration of plants and animals, especially marine species. Her findings were published in journal articles, which she authored individually or with collaborators, most notably N.D. Paton. Later she studied and reported on the large collections of marine organisms collected by the Challenger expedition, and undertook further research, expanding her natural history knowledge at the Marine Biological Station Millport. She brought her work and the published literature on marine organisms' colouration together in Colour in Nature (1898) and Life by the Sea Shore (1901), which were praised as both scientifically rigorous and remarkably accessible. These early works of hers remained widely read for many years after their publication.