The History of Geology Group

GeoHistories magazine is HOGG’s regular publication, with two issues per year, in the Spring and Autumn, posted directly to members. 

Issues are available only to members for a period three years, following which they are publicly accessible as pdf documents on the Zenodo open-access digital archive (type ‘GeoHistories’ in the search box).

HOGG publishes occasional collections of papers or articles, based on the themes of HOGG conferences or symposia, produced in collaboration with cognate organisations as special or thematic issues of journals, or as special publications of the Geological Society. 

Publications include: 

Transactions of the Enormous fossil animal and Almost perfect skelton Symposium, held at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, to mark the bicentenary of the 1824 Geological Society meeting at which the first scientific accounts of a ‘sea dragon’ (Plesiosaurus) and dinosaur (Megalosaurus) were given. 

Earth Sciences History, Volume 44, Number 1, 2025.

Papers from the HOGG conference ‘Aspects of the history and progress of geology in Ireland’, held at Trinity College Dublin, in 2023.

 Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, Volume 43, 2025.

Papers from the HOGG conference to mark the bicentenary of William Smith’s 1815 Geological Map of England and Wales , held at the Geological Society of London, in 2015.

Earth Sciences History, Volume 35, Number 1, 2016.

Special Publication volumes of the Geological Society of London feature history of geology themes, including sets of papers from past HOGG conference meetings, available via the Geological Society’s bookshop.

Occasionally, HOGG members independently produce books on history of geology topics published via commercial publishers. 

The Fossil Women: A life of Mary Anning by Tom. Sharpe. Dovecote Press, 2023. 

The Dating Game: One Man’s Search for the Age of the Earth  by Cherry Lewis. Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Adam Sedgwick : Geologist and Dalesman  by Colin Speakman. Gritstone Writers Co-operative Ltd and The Yorkshire Geological Society, 2018.