MaryGillhamArchiveProject

Dr Mary Gillham MBE (1921 - 2013) was a pioneering naturalist and prolific wildlife author, who took an active interest in the environment for over 80 years. In 1959 Mary was a member of the first Antarctic expedition to include women scientists, and after a period in New Zealand, Australia and multiple African countries, she spent nearly three decades as a lecturer for Cardiff University, educating people about the natural heritage of South Wales. Throughout her life, Mary campaigned tirelessly to protect species and habitats, and in 2008 was awarded an MBE for services to nature conservation.

Towards the end of her life it became apparent that Mary had amassed a huge amount of data: documents, slides, illustrations, notes and more. Within this archive there are well over 100,000 wildlife records spanning 70 years, consisting of written notes, travel journals, wildlife diaries, unpublished manuscripts, maps, illustrations as well as 30,000 slides depicting her work and travels around the world. With Mary's support, an application was made to the Heritage Lottery Fund to turn what was an analogue archive into a digital resource, and so the Mary Gillham Archive Project was born.

Here, one of the Project volunteers reads from some of Mary's books to demonstrate what motivated Mary to work so passionately for the good of wildlife.

Find out more about the project - which ran between 2016 and 2018 - at www.marygillhamarchiveproject.com.

MaryGillhamArchiveProject’s tracks

• Limestone Downs by MaryGillhamArchiveProject
• Memories Of Welsh Islands by MaryGillhamArchiveProject
• Instructions to Young Ornithologists by MaryGillhamArchiveProject
• Sub-Antarctic Sanctuary by MaryGillhamArchiveProject
• Swansea Bay's Green Mantle by MaryGillhamArchiveProject
• A Natural History of Gower by MaryGillhamArchiveProject
• Garth Mountain by MaryGillhamArchiveProject
• Gillham Lecture 1973 by MaryGillhamArchiveProject
• ForestFarm by MaryGillhamArchiveProject