Monday 25 March 2013

Free talk on Mary Lily Walker tomorrow


Mary Lily Walker
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :

"Never more blessed":  The lifelong friendship of Mary Lily Walker and D'Arcy Thompson
A free talk by Dr Suzanne Zeedyk & Pete Kinnear

Tuesday 26 March at 6pm in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, Carnelley Building, University of Dundee

Mary Lily Walker was one of Dundee's most visionary social reformers. 2013 marks the centenary of her death, and this evening talk is one of a number of celebratory events scheduled across the year. 

As well as giving an overview of Walker's remarkable life, the talk will explore the lifelong friendship she shared with Professor D’Arcy Thompson, starting with the mentorship he offered her as a one of the first cohort of students at University College, Dundee in 1883. 

The speakers will draw from 30 years of correspondence between them and other writers, with some letters having been only recently discovered. 

The scientific training that D'Arcy afforded her was put to good use in providing irrefutable evidence of the despair suffered by so many Victorian children. 

The effects of Mary Lily Walker's efforts can still be seen today in Scotland's burgeoning Early Years Movement, now championed by the Chief Medical Officer.  

In 1938, at the age of 78, D’Arcy said of her memory that he had “not been blessed in his long life with a friend more honoured than Mary Lily Walker”.  

Join us for a welcome and overdue renewal of her memory.