Looking for female contributors!

• by jules moderator

  @elizabeth found an illustration by Mabel Rhodes (ASC0002zyg) and enquired if this was the first female contributor we had found. The answer was “no” as we have already come across a few female contributors, but that's the point – only a few. (Examples are ASC0000bld (illustration for an article about the caddis-worm by Elizabeth Mary Smee) and ASC00009p6 (an article on how to use a telescope by the Hon. Mrs Ward.)) @elizabeth's question was a very good one. If the journals we are classifying are anything to go by Victorian citizen science seems to have very much been a male preserve. (I am sure the Science Gossip team could elaborate here!)

  We thought it would be interesting to tag all the female contributors we come across, either authors, illustrators or printers etc. I have set up a tag group called Female Contributors which already contains 14 examples from 10 female contributors and uses the tag #female. If you come across a female contributor please use the #female tag. Let's see how many individual women contributors we can find!

  The list so far is:

  Alice Bodington Possible Wikipedia entry for her husband Oliver Bodington
  
  Mrs F Lee Bridell This is her Wikipedia page
  
  Adrienne Faquet
  
  Agnes Fry (with more information here), daughter of Edward Fry
  
  Miss (Elizabeth) Kent More information here
  
  Clara Kingsford
  
  Mary F May
  
  Mary B Morris
  
  Mabel Rhodes
  
  Elizabeth Mary Smee
  
  The Hon. Mrs Mary Ward This is her Wikipedia page
  
  Christina Rennie

  Let's add to it!

  Posted November 9, 2015 10:12 PM

• by ElisabethB

  Brilliant idea ! I'll have a look out for them ! 😄

  Posted November 9, 2015 10:44 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  😃 cool

  Posted November 10, 2015 9:08 AM

• by VVH scientist, admin

  Hey everyone, this is a great idea! It's possible that we could approach the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography to create a new set of biographies around this theme. Geoff or I can check to see if these ladies are in the dictionary already. Alternatively, the ODNB is available through a lot of public and institutional libraries. Does anyone have access? Alternatively, do these women have Wikipedia entries? Maybe we can collaborate on adding them to Wikipedia.

  Posted November 10, 2015 11:05 AM

• by jules moderator in response to VVH's comment.

  I've added all the Wikipedia links I could find. I found the Hon Mary Ward's entry particularly interesting. I was not aware of the ODNB - I'll do some digging. If anyone has access please let us know!

  Posted November 10, 2015 2:54 PM

• by sally_82 scientist

  Sounds like a fantastic idea! I just had a look at the ODNB and could only find 3 of the contributors on there: Eliza Bridell Fox, Mary Ward and - who I think is our Miss Kent - Elizabeth Kent (1790-1861) (does this fit with the dates of her drawings?). There's some interesting info on her here: http://www.lib.msu.edu/exhibits/botany/kent.jsp . Her ODNB entry additionally notes that she died in impoverished circumstances and that in 1860,"Kent was living with her nephew Thornton Hunt and his large family at 39 Bedford Street, Strand, with no money for clothing, laundry, and medicine."

  Additionally there is a bit of information about Elizabeth Mary Smee under the entry for her father Alfred Smee who was a surgeon:

  On 2 June 1840 Smee married Elizabeth Hutchison at St Margaret, Lothbury, near the bank, and by early 1842 they had moved to 7 Finsbury Circus, which remained the family home. There were two children, Alfred Hutchison Smee (b. 1841) and Elizabeth Mary Smee (b. 1843). She married in 1872 William Odling (1829–1921), Waynflete professor of chemistry at Oxford. In 1841 Smee became surgeon-general to the Bank of England and was elected FRS.

  My sense is that while the majority of contributors were men, natural history had a greater proportion of female contributors than most other scientific disciplines. I think a project like this, tagging female contributors, could help us get a much better grasp on the extent to which women were participating!

  One final thing! My colleague @berrischarnley asks whether folks might be able to keep a look out for Eleanor Ormerod (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Anne_Ormerod) as well as her sister and mother Sarah and Georgina Ormerod? Berris is researching EO and the networks of citizen scientists she worked with and would be delighted to hear whether anyone comes across the Ormerod family. Sarah and Georgina were both natural history illustrators.

  Posted November 11, 2015 4:13 PM

• by yshish moderator in response to sally_82's comment.

  @sally_82 Great! Thank you so much for finding and sharing all these information! We'll do our best to look for Eleanor's and Sarah's and Georgina's signatures! 😃 So exciting... hope we'll find some of their art!

  (I'm sorry for my passivity these days, I'm extremely busy at work.. Will come back as soon as possible!)

  Posted November 11, 2015 6:21 PM

• by jules moderator

  Thanks @sally_82! That's a great help. Yes,
  Miss Kent's article appeared in the 1829 edition of the Magazine of natural history and journal of zoology, botany, mineralogy, geology and meteorology so the dates of Elizabeth Kent fit very nicely.

  Posted November 11, 2015 9:37 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Just in case I did not push the right buttons Like wow! #female https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Hoggan

  Posted November 12, 2015 10:57 AM

• by sally_82 scientist

  Great! Thanks so much 😃

  Posted November 12, 2015 11:07 AM

• by elizabeth_s in response to sally_82's comment.

  I think this is cool.. My question is did it post ok? Thanks LIZ

  Posted November 12, 2015 11:11 AM

• by jules moderator in response to elizabeth's comment.

  Your link worked just fine @elizabeth. I haven't come across any articles or illustrations by Frances Hoggan - but she is another one to look out for.

  Posted November 12, 2015 2:02 PM

• by JANEJ

  Let's not forget Elizabeth Gould, who may have been a better scientific illustrator than her husband. While John Gould was in the Australian countryside collecting, Elizabeth stayed in Sydney birthing a son and sketching the native vegetation, which appeared in the Australian volumes. A truncated biography in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Gould_(illustrator) and perhaps a better overview at http://liblamp.vm.ku.edu/spencer/exhibits/gould/life.htm

  Haven't run aross her in any of our pubs, but most of her work was privately published. Much was lost.

  Posted November 29, 2015 2:50 AM

• by jules moderator in response to JANEJ's comment.

  Thanks @JANEJ - worth looking out for.

  Posted November 29, 2015 2:50 PM

• by geoffrey.belknap scientist

  What a brilliant idea! Have just returned from my long vacation - so if there is anything in the way of female authors I can help out with just let me know (though it looks like @sally_82 had it covered!)

  Posted November 30, 2015 11:13 AM

• by jules moderator

  I'll update the list of names shortly - we have quite a few now.

  Posted December 1, 2015 9:44 PM

• by PinkPimpernel

  https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003pys
  Agnes Fry, daughter of Edward Fry ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fry#Family ). Also found her here: Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research, p. 41 https://books.google.com/books?id=amtGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=agnes+fry+botany&source=bl&ots=snHJm7OHxm&sig=Fzp40C8PveW1JptwSYbNjkmoMXs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt6YKN-NHLAhXHPB4KHfeSBv4Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=agnes fry botany&f=false

  Posted March 21, 2016 2:03 PM

• by jules moderator in response to PinkPimpernel's comment.

  Great - thanks for posting these @PinkPimpernel. I have added them to our list in the first post.

  Posted March 24, 2016 12:44 PM

• by Aesthetic_Tea scientist in response to jules's comment.

  just having a look through the list - great work! there's a few more that are popping up - I'll try and credit the users who have added them below!

  Mrs P S Bury (on polycystins) (@PinkPimpernel)
  Miss Jane Donald, Mrs Elizabeth Grey, Miss Ethel Gertrude Skeat (awarded funds from the Murchiston Soc) (@elizabeth_s)
  Miss Catherine A Raisin (awarded from the Lyell Soc) (@elizabeth_s)
  Miss Helen Drew & Miss Ida L Slater (awarded from the Pidgeon Fund) (@elizabeth_s)
  Miss M.M.Ogilvie (Mrs M Gordon) (article) (@elizabeth_s)

  That's only a few from the #female list - I'll add a few more for consideration throughout the week!

  Posted April 24, 2016 2:27 PM

• by yshish moderator in response to Aesthetic_Tea's comment.

  Oh, great! Thanks @Aesthetic_Tea 😃

  Posted April 24, 2016 3:53 PM

• by ElisabethB

  Miss Agnes Crane

  Posted May 2, 2016 3:01 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Miss E.Dale

  Posted May 5, 2016 10:53 PM

• by PinkPimpernel

  Miss Gertrude Elles.

  Posted May 6, 2016 9:07 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Mrs. E.S. Gregory : Viola caldarea as a Species

  Posted May 6, 2016 9:09 PM

• by ElisabethB

  Contessa Anna di San Giorgio (née Harley) : botanist

  Posted May 9, 2016 7:35 PM

• by ElisabethB

  Miss Helen Saunders : co-discoverer of the yellow-flowered eyebright in England

  Posted May 10, 2016 12:17 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Eliza Brightwen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Brightwen

  Posted May 12, 2016 8:13 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Elizabeth Healey : A first book of botany

  Posted May 12, 2016 8:56 PM

• by ElisabethB

  Janet Robertson

  Posted May 13, 2016 7:12 PM

• by Aesthetic_Tea scientist

  Thanks to ElisabethB, elizabeth_s & PinkPimpernel for keeping this going! I've been without a PC recently but will be back on board this week - thinking of advertising the female contributors on Twitter etc to see if we can get more hands. I'll update another list also so there's a few threadmarks that bring the work together for anyone coming to it fresh.

  Posted May 15, 2016 6:30 PM

• by ElisabethB

  And here's another one : Mrs Wood, discoverer of S. californicus in Britain with some help of Miss C.E. Carter.

  Posted May 16, 2016 6:45 PM

• by ElisabethB

  Mrs Stokes, daughter of Dr. J.E. Gray, F.R.S., who, with the help of her mother, Mrs Gray, discovered a new type of form among the Oscillatoriaceae

  Posted May 16, 2016 7:08 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Miss E. Hodgson https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003phw

  Posted May 17, 2016 9:34 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  M. Suft https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003pjo

  Posted May 17, 2016 10:10 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Eleonora Armitage Botanist https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003qxm

  Posted May 17, 2016 10:46 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Miss G Lister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulielma_Lister

  Posted May 18, 2016 7:39 PM

• by ElisabethB

  Miss E.M. Cox in the list of contributors

  Posted May 19, 2016 8:32 PM

• by Aesthetic_Tea scientist

  Hi all,

  A small update to the list - I'm on leave for a week from today but when back I'm going to look at cross-referencing the entire list with ODNB, wiki etc to pull all the work everyone's done into something we can format beyond Talk. Excellent sourcing so far!

  I know there's a few identifications here - particularly by elizabeth_s - that I haven't formatted in yet; apologies on my part, I will get on to this!

  Miss Agnes Crane - identified by ElisabethB

  Miss Gertrude Elles - identified by PinkPimpernel

  Contessa Anna di San Giorgio (nee Harley) - identified by ElisabethB - a little more from Harvard Uni Herbraria - http://kiki.huh.harvard.edu/databases/botanist_search.php?mode=details&id=61070

  Miss Helen Saunders - identified by ElisabethB

  Janet Robertson - identified by ElisabethB

  Mrs Wood - identified by ElisabethB - discovery of S. californicus in Britain with some help of Miss C.E. Carter. (this is someone I thought might be traceable, but no hits so far on basic searches)

  Mrs Stokes - identified by ElisabethB - daughter of Dr J E Gray, FRS

  Miss E Hodgson - identified by elizabeth_s

  M. Suft - identified by elizabeth_s

  Eleonora Armitage - identified by elizabeth_s

  Miss E M Cox - identified by ElisabethB - list of contributors

  Posted May 21, 2016 4:13 PM

• by Aesthetic_Tea scientist

  so this in a way is to have a threadmark for me to come back to, with the overall aim of having a one-stop shop akin to Jules' introductory post.

  the next question is - given that all the hard yards are being put in by you - where should we go next? The immediate idea that occurs is for me to work on a system of classification and work together some kind of spreadsheet / editable database (in the loosest meaning of the word) so that we can start digging in to some of the data.

  Does anyone have any ideas / thoughts?

  Thanks again!

  Posted May 21, 2016 4:17 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Mrs. Mackie https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003w5z

  Posted May 21, 2016 7:43 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Anna Russell Botanist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Russell_(botanist)

  Posted May 23, 2016 9:26 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Mrs. T.J. Hussey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Maria_Hussey

  Posted May 23, 2016 9:58 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Miss Cutler Mrs. Griffiths https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003olq

  Posted May 23, 2016 10:45 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Mrs. Mackie https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003v6l

  Posted May 24, 2016 8:39 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Elizabeth G. Britton https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003v6l

  https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003r3k

  Posted May 24, 2016 8:49 PM

• by elizabeth_s in response to elizabeth_s's comment.

  Mrs Mackie https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003w83

  Posted May 25, 2016 12:06 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Margaret Slosson botanist https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003r9y

  https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Margaret_Slosson

  Posted June 11, 2016 8:04 PM

• by elizabeth_s

  Amelia Edwards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Edwards
  https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003si0

  Posted September 9, 2016 12:44 AM

• by PinkPimpernel

  Gulielma Lister https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003pxp

  "Gulielma Lister's close association with the British Museum lasted from the late 1880s until 1939, when wartime conditions prevented her travelling to London. For many years she was virtually honorary curator of the Myxomycetes, a collection she had helped to make the most important and complete then in existence, and greatly enriched with her watercolours giving magnified views."

  Edited to add: Here she is again! https://talk.sciencegossip.org/#/subjects/ASC0003s29

  Posted September 12, 2016 3:27 PM

• by SiobhanLeachman

  While tagging taxonomy images for the Biodiversity Heritage Library Flickr feed I've come across an illustrator called Olive Florence Tassart. See http://www.worldcat.org/identities/np-tassart, olive florence/ She worked for the British Library and illustrated many works for over 30 years. If people happen to come across her illustrations while contributing to Science Gossip, I'd love to know!

  Posted November 2, 2016 9:00 PM

• by SiobhanLeachman

  Also I and some fellow taxonomy taggers for BHL have created this google spreadsheet for illustrators we've come across. It's not just women but does contain quite a few with links to their VIAF number if we can find it and a wikipedia page if one exists. Have a look here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lQKHh5x5uqdTcCPOTov5gtOX5YEbfYw6DPJBJ85ayTY/edit?usp=sharing as you may be able to cross reference. Another fabulous resource that I find useful is the Stuttgart database of scientific illustrators. See http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/hi/gnt/dsi2/index.php?function=show_static_page&id_static_page=1&table_name=dsi Hope this helps with your research.

  Posted November 2, 2016 9:07 PM

• by jules moderator in response to SiobhanLeachman's comment.

  Thank you @SiobhanLeachman for sharing such valuable information. We already use the Stuttgart DSI as one of our resources but the spreadsheet will be certainly very useful for cross referencing. I haven't come across Olive Florence Tassart but I think some of our periodicals are late enough to cover the period she was working so I hope everyone will look out for her.

  Posted November 3, 2016 2:18 PM

• by Whalesforlife

  Great idea ill keep a look out for this

  Posted April 26, 2017 1:28 PM

• by mariakatosvich

  very exciting... hopeful to find some of their art!That's a great help.

  Posted June 27, 2017 7:16 AM

• by NicoleVache

  I'd love to help out! Let me know how.

  Posted July 13, 2017 4:03 PM

• by jhsteel

  I am a female scientist who took early retirement due to poor health. I would be glad to join in with this - does it just involve reading all the Science Gossip pages? Is it only Victorian scientists you are interested in?

  Posted July 13, 2017 6:57 PM

• by jules moderator in response to jhsteel's comment.

  Hi @jhsteel - glad to have you aboard!

  Good questions! I'm sure a team member will pop by and clarify things. Meanwhile noting any female contributors you come across while classifying the journals presented to us in Science Gossip would certainly be very useful. Another option would be to look at the lists of female contributors posted earlier in this thread on page 1 here and on the following page (page 2) and choose one to do a little research on - find more examples of that person's work, family background etc. And if you come across any good resources on your travels please let us know.

  Posted July 13, 2017 7:42 PM

• by geoffrey.belknap scientist

  Hi @jhsteel - Thanks for your help with this! It's great to know that you have been a working scientist, we are definitely interested in details about the people, such as yourself, who are participating on Science Gossip. For this task, however, we are looking to, as @jules says, the identification of any names for historical female contributors to the journals that you come across while classifying, as well as any research you are willing to do to find out more about the names that we have already identified. We'd like to be able to improve wikipedia entries for these women, so that we can improve our knowledge of the range of women who made and participated in scientific research in the past.

  Posted July 14, 2017 11:35 AM

• by edemars

  Hi everyone, this is a great idea - women need to be more represented!! What I could offer is the translation of Wikipedia entries created by members of this network into German and French. Let's know the world about women's scientific contributions!

  Posted July 16, 2017 6:05 PM

• by yshish moderator in response to edemars's comment.

  Good to know you can help with translations into German and French! That is great. Thanks.

  Posted July 17, 2017 2:57 PM

• by jules moderator

  Princess Marie Liechtenstein There's an internet copy of her book "Holland House" here.

  Posted August 6, 2017 12:14 PM

• by SiobhanLeachman

  Hi again. Since I've talked to you last I've been doing quite a bit of editing of both Wikipedia and Wikidata on women in science articles, particularly women I've come across via exposure to Biodiversity Heritage Library content. A friend of mine and I are coming across these women by exploring not just Science Gossip but also by tagging images in the Biodiversity Heritage Library Flickr feed as well as exploring the actual books and journals in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. I'm going to mention to Grace Constantino, the outreach manager for the Biodiversity Heritage Library, this group's interest in improving Wikipedia's coverage of these women. I think it would be wonderful if a joint effort were organised. In the meantime remember that anyone can edit Wikipedia and if you think you can improve any of these women's articles just be bold and give it a go!
  Best regards, Siobhan

  Posted August 21, 2017 3:47 AM

• by SiobhanLeachman in response to jules's comment.

  It looks as if she is the same woman in this Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Henriette_of_Liechtenstein. See also http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2003084046.html. I hope this helps.

  Posted August 21, 2017 3:57 AM

• by jules moderator in response to SiobhanLeachman's comment.

  Thanks @SiobhanLeachman. I'm still not sure how we're taking this forward but I'll have a look at the resources you mention.

  Posted August 21, 2017 4:48 PM

• by PinkPimpernel

  Mary Caroline McKenny Hughes! https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30533679 & p. 4 of https://www.esc.cam.ac.uk/news-pdfs/thomas-mckenny-hughes-eighth-woodwardian-professor-pdf

  Posted August 17, 2018 8:52 PM

• by jules moderator in response to PinkPimpernel's comment.

  Excellent @PinkPimpernel!

  Posted August 20, 2018 12:22 PM