Revealing New Worlds

Three Victorian Women Naturalists

Suzanne Le-May Sheffield

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134698530
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Science & Technology Biographies
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The story of nineteenth-century science often tells a tale of a masculinized professionalizing domain. Scientific man increasingly pushed women out, marginalized them and constructed them as naturally feminine creatures incapable of intellectual work, particularly scientific work. Yet many women participated in various scientific endeavours throughout the century. This work asks why, when the waters were so inviting, did women dive deeply into the swirling maelstrom of scientific practice, scientific controversies and scientific writing?
Victorian women certainly recognised that male naturalists were not always willing to welcome them warmly into their inner sanctum of scientific work honour and prestige. Moreover, they recognised the existence of a more general social stigma that thwarted any woman's participation in intellectual endeavours. However, their fascination with algology, botany and entomology led Margaret Gatty, Marianne North and Eleanor Ormerod to reach beyond acceptable gendered roles, to undertake field work, to paint, write, popularize, experiment and discover. Each exhibited a passion for their chosen field, a need for intellectual, artistic and scientific work, and a desire for scientific recognition and renown. This book examines the ability of women to understand themselves and respond to their needs as complex human beings. Within a framework of socially and scientifically constructed norms, these Victorial women use d science as a path to self-awareness and intellectual accomplishment.

Index

Agardh, Dr, 31

Agassiz, Professor, 60, 114

Agricultural Society. See Royal Agricultural Society

Alexander, Mrs, 33, 63

Alice in Wonderland, 46

Allen, David E, 5

Allman, Dr, 212

Animal Rights considered in Relation to Social Progress, 125

Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 60

Anning, Mary, 161–162n. 33

Anti-vivisection, 125

Arber, Agnes, 113

art, 3, 76, chapter 4; and science, 107–8; as female pastime, 108–10, 196–7; creating a niche in, 108, 112–13, 116–17, 134; history of women and, 108–10, 209–11; Julia Margaret Cameron and, 209–11; limits for women, 109–10; making money at, 109; photography and, 195–6; reality and, 195–6, subjectivity and, 196. See also “botanical art” and “North, Marianne”.

Art journal, 196–7

autobiographies, Margaret Gatty and, 13; Marianne North and, 91–2; Ormerod and, 139–40; women and, 6, 14, 22, 91;

Bartholomew, Valentine, 110

Becker, Miss Lydia, 150

Bell & Daldy, publisher, 21, 24–5, 54, 67

Besant, Annie, 74n. 78

Blake, William, 64

Blunt, William, 117

Book of Emblems, 67

Bonnet, Charles, 169

Boose, Lynda, 79

Booth, Maria, 15

Bos, Dr. Ritzema, 176

botanical art, aesthetic value of North's paintings, 117; as female occupation, 112; creating a niche in, 108, 113–14, 116–17,134; history of, 111–12; in the nineteenth century, 111–12; North and, 7, 76; North's lessons in, 110; North's production of, 107; North's techniques of, 96–7, 112–14; standard techniques of, 112–13

botany, as “feminine” science, 45, 107–8

Bowdler Sharpes. See Sharpe, Bowdler, family...