Maria Emma Gray

Petit, Richard E., 2012, 3214, Zootaxa 3214, pp. 1-125 : 6

Maria Emma Gray (1787–1876)

Emma Gray was the widow of John Gray’s cousin, Francis Edward Gray (1775–1814). Emma and her friends took care of John after his health breakdown in 1822 and facilitated his recovery. They were married in 1826, and she later became active in science, copying figures for her husband. Those drawings became the basis for the five volume Figures of Molluscous Animals (collated herein). She also became an authority on marine algae. She had two daughters by her first marriage, Emma Juliana and Sophia. Sophia was an accomplished artist and drew shells for her step-father, including several plates for the Spicilegia Zoologica. Gray praised her assistance when naming Voluta sophiae for her.

Emma was financially independent, and her wealth made it possible for the Grays to visit museums on the continent each year during their vacations. Those trips permitted Gray to get to know the museum personnel and the dealers, later corresponding extensively with many of them. One year he and Richard Owen, then still at the Royal College of Surgeons, attended lectures by Cuvier at the same time.

The portrait of Maria Emma Gray that served as a frontispiece for Figures of Molluscous Animals is reproduced herein as Figure 1.