Biodiversity Heritage Library - Program news and collection highlights from BHL
  • Home
  • News
  • Featured Books
    • All Featured Books
    • Book of the Month Series
  • User Stories
  • Campaigns
    • Fossil Stories
    • Garden Stories
    • Monsters Are Real
    • Page Frights
    • Her Natural History
    • Earth Optimism 2020
  • Tech Blog
  • Visit BHL
Home
News
Featured Books
    All Featured Books
    Book of the Month Series
User Stories
Campaigns
    Fossil Stories
    Garden Stories
    Monsters Are Real
    Page Frights
    Her Natural History
    Earth Optimism 2020
Tech Blog
Visit BHL
  • Home
  • News
  • Featured Books
    • All Featured Books
    • Book of the Month Series
  • User Stories
  • Campaigns
    • Fossil Stories
    • Garden Stories
    • Monsters Are Real
    • Page Frights
    • Her Natural History
    • Earth Optimism 2020
  • Tech Blog
  • Visit BHL
Biodiversity Heritage Library - Program news and collection highlights from BHL

All posts tagged with women-in-science

Blog Reel, User Stories

“Writing Women Back Into the History of STEM”: BHL Supports Research on Women in Science

Read the full blog post

In 1868, one of the first serious botanical works in Canada was published. Entitled Canadian Wild Flowers, the work treated nearly three dozen of “the most remarkable” wildflowers found in Canada. The publication is notable for more than its position as an early work on Canadian botany. During a time when women were largely unwelcome in the male-dominated scientific world, this pioneering book was written and illustrated by women.

Canadian Wild Flowers was authored by naturalist Catharine Parr Traill (1802-99), a trailblazer in research on Canada’s natural history. The plates were drawn and lithographed by her niece, Agnes Dunbar Moodie Fitzgibbon Chamberlin (1833–1913). An expensive undertaking and sold by subscription, the work went on to be published in several editions.

“Catharine Parr Traill is arguably Canada’s most famous 19th century botanist, though she never thought of herself as a professional botanist because women weren’t employed as such in those days,” explains Dr. Dawn Bazely, University Professor in the Department of Biology at York University in Toronto.

Continue reading
March 12, 2020byGrace Costantino
Blog Reel, Campaigns, Featured Books, Her Natural History

Lydia Moore (Hart) Green, Illustrator for The Fishes of Illinois

Read the full blog post

The first edition of The Fishes of Illinois was published in 1908 by the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, representing several decades’ work to document species, distributions, and ecology. The work features detailed, color paintings of fishes attributed to Lydia M. (Hart) Green and Charlotte M. Pinkerton. In the first edition were 55 images representing 53 species, with 20 images representing 18 additional species added for the 1920 second edition. Images were not credited to specific artists in either edition.

Most of the originals were kept by State Laboratory (now Illinois Natural History Survey), and are being reviewed in preparation for accession into the University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Artists have been identified for most color plates in the 2 editions: 33 by Green, 24 by Pinkerton. Three paintings bearing the name of Max Bihn (one published) were also found among the paintings long assumed to be the work of Green and Pinkerton alone. Green routinely applied a distinctive signature in ink to the front of her work.

Continue reading
July 25, 2019bySusan Braxton
BHL News, Blog Reel, Campaigns, Her Natural History

#HerNaturalHistory: Campaign Report and Outcomes

Read the full blog post

This year, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and our global partners celebrated Women’s History Month with an international social media campaign: Her Natural History: A Celebration of Women in Natural History.

We were delighted with the outcomes and impact of the campaign. #HerNaturalHistory had reached over 7.5 million people, with over 52 million impressions on content and over 3,100 accounts participating on social media. The campaign allowed BHL to expand its reach and engagement with existing and new audiences in notable ways, resulting in a 35% average increase in overall social reach and a 41% increase in overall social engagements compared to 2018 averages. #HerNaturalHistory also encouraged increased engagement with the works of women in BHL, fostering a 122% increase in views on books in the Women in Natural History Book Collection compared to 2018 monthly averages.

We invite you to explore the results on the campaign in-depth within the Her Natural History campaign report.

Continue reading
May 2, 2019byGrace Costantino
Blog Reel, Campaigns, Her Natural History

Language of Flowers: 19th Century Literary Genre Offered Opportunities for Women Writers of Natural History

Read the full blog post

“Language of Flowers”, a popular literary trend in the 19th century, presented the world of botany through dictionaries of flowers and associated meanings, floral poetry and prose, offering a sentimental view of natural history.  These charming books with colorful illustrations of flowers and bouquets are at the intersection of botany, horticulture, natural history, art, poetry, and women’s studies.  This Victorian fad saw many editions of works published, with multiple titles by successful authors.  The following provides a glimpse into the work of four women authors of this genre.

Continue reading
March 30, 2019byLeora Siegel
Blog Reel, Campaigns, Her Natural History

The Popular and Prolific Ms. Pratt

Read the full blog post

During the Victorian era, many gifted women participated in what has been called the “Golden Age of botanical art,” reflecting both a surge in gardening interests across English society, as well advances in book-making technology (Burns, Kramer). Though virtually unknown today, Anne Pratt (1806-1893) was one of the most prolific and popular artists and writers of this time, ultimately producing twenty published works that were loved for their handsome and accurate illustrations, and helping to create interest in flower study in the general public.

Continue reading
March 29, 2019byGretchen Rings
Blog Reel, Campaigns, Her Natural History

Hildegarde Howard: The Greatest Avian Paleontologist You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Read the full blog post

Nearly 100 years ago, a fresh faced journalism student at the Southern Branch of the University of California (now UCLA) walked into Ms. Pirie Davidson’s biology classroom (Campbell, 2000, 775). This young woman was not particularly interested in biology and, really, why would she have been? At the time, women were barred from attending any off-site field trips and science was thought to primarily be the work of men. However, it was not long before Hildegarde was captivated by the subject — so much so that she became Ms. Davidson’s lab assistant. Young Hildegarde was soon offered a position as a part-time day laborer sorting Smilodon (Saber toothed cat) fossils for renowned mammalian paleontologist Chester Stock at the Museum of Science, History, and Art of Los Angeles County (now known as the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) at Rancho La Brea.

Continue reading
March 28, 2019byYolanda Bustos
Blog Reel, Campaigns, Her Natural History

Henrietta Page sketchbook of fungi drawings

Read the full blog post

The Harvard Botany Libraries recently acquired and digitized Henrietta Page’s [Sketchbook of drawings of fungi], volume II. The sketchbook was a gift from the Boston Mycological Club (BMC) where Page was a member and served on the executive committee for a time. She was also a member of the Boston Society of Natural History. The sketchbook mostly describes fungi collected during July and August when Page attended three-week long natural history classes held in Alstead, New Hampshire under the Alstead School of Natural History from 1899-1903.

Continue reading
March 27, 2019byDanielle Castronovo and Jason Karakehian
Page 2 of 5«1234»...Last »

Help Support BHL

BHL’s existence depends on the financial support of its patrons. Help us keep this free resource alive!

Donate Now

search

About BHL

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. Headquartered at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives in Washington, D.C., BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working together to digitize the natural history literature held in their collections and make it freely available for open access as part of a global “biodiversity community.”

Follow BHL

Join Our Mailing List

Sign up to receive the latest news, content highlights, and promotions.

Subscribe Now

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Subscribe to Blog Via RSS

Subscribe to the blog RSS feed to stay up-to-date on all the latest BHL posts.

Access RSS Feed

BHL on Twitter

Tweets by @BioDivLibrary

Inspiring Discovery through Free Access to Biodiversity Knowledge.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library makes it easier than ever for you to access the information you need to study and explore life on Earth…for free, anytime, anywhere.

62+ Million Pages of
Biodiversity Literature Online.

EXPLORE

Tools and Services
to Transform Research.

EXPLORE

300,000+
Illustrations on Flickr.

EXPLORE

 

ABOUT | BLOG AUTHORS | HARMFUL CONTENT | PRIVACY | SITE MAP | TERMS OF USE

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader