Anita McConnell (; 22 January 1936 – 28 April 2016) was a British historian of science, writer and curator, specialising in the history of oceanography and British scientific instrument makers of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Early life McConnell was born Anita Airoldi on 22 January 1936 in London to the chefs Giuseppe Antonio "Joseph Antony" Airoldi (1911–1985) and Lottie Grace Airoldi (née Lavington: 1907–1983). Her father was Italian and her mother was British. During the Second World War she was sent as a child evacuee to the West Country and finished her secondary education with four O Levels. In 1957 she took a job location catering for such films as The Inn of the Sixth Happiness and The Bridge on the River Kwai, the latter resulting in a six-month stay in Sri Lanka.
Career In 1963 she took a job at the Science Museum, London, as an assistant with the Navigation and Meteorology collections. She later assisted with preparation work for setting up the National Railway Museum. In 1973 she rejoined the Science Museum to become curator of Oceanography and Geophysics. From 1961 to 1979 she successively attained a diploma in archaeology, a degree in geography, a master's degree in history of technology and a doctorate from the University of Leicester, which appeared in print as No Sea Too Deep, The History of Oceanographic Instruments. University of Leicester - Dr Anita McConnell In 1968, McConnell became a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
She began writing in 1980 and published works particularly on the history of oceanography and British scientific instrument makers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Her popular book on barometers was written in 1988. In her work on oceanographic instruments she was noted for the level of detail achievedReview of Historical Instruments in Oceanography and in her biographies of scientific instrument makers she was noted for her ability to work from archived material such as clients letters.Review of Jesse Ramsden - 1735 - 1800 London's leading Instrument Maker
In 1993, she became a research editor for the Dictionary of National Biography for Oxford University Press, initially working on entries for instrument makersDNB article on Edward Troughton and clock makers, and later, also on science and medicine. McConnell was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Meteorological Society and Hakluyt Society.
On 28 April 2016, McConnell died aged 80 whilst visiting a friend in Switzerland. McConnell was cremated and her ashes scattered in Switzerland.
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