%0 Journal Article
%T Science and the City: The role of women in the science city: London 1650–1800
%A Jane Desborough
%A Gloria  Clifton
%D 2022
%V 
%N Spring 2021
%K instrument makers
%K London
%K scientific instruments
%K Women
%X Women played fundamental roles in the establishment of London as a ‘science city’ in the period 1650–1800. Taking its inspiration from the themes explored in the Science Museum’s new permanent gallery, Science City 1550–1800: The Linbury Gallery, this paper explores four broad categories of contribution that women made – as scientific instrument makers or retailers, as teachers, as students or participants, and as authors or correspondents in science – to demonstrate that they played more significant roles than has been fully accounted for previously. To do so, we consider the examples of 25 specific individuals and various other virtually unidentifiable women spanning the period 1650–1800. By bringing together examples of different types of contribution, we show that women did not play a single role; they contributed to the emergence of a scientific culture in London in many different ways. All of the women discussed in this paper were individuals with their own reasons for involvement in science. But several factors such as contemporary perceptions of women, networks in London, and the growing demand for scientific knowledge united them all and influenced their experiences.
%Z Addition 30 April 1783 in Henry Moyes to William Withering, Royal Society of Medicine, London, MS534.63-3
%Z https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/science-city-1550-1800-linbury-gallery (accessed 12 September 2019)
%Z Science Museum Group object No. 1985-1389
%Z Minutes of the Spectaclemakers’ Company, Guildhall Library, ref. MS 5213/1
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%Z A Catalogue of Globes, Maps, &c. made by the late John Senex, F.R.S. and continue to be sold by his Widow Mary Senex, at the Globe...in Fleet Street, where may be had, all Maps & Globes, &c. as in Mr. Senex’s life-time, etc. London: Mary Senex, 1741
%Z ‘A Letter from the widow of the late Mr. John Senex, F. R. S., ...’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol 46, Issue 493, published 1 January 1750, pp 290–92
%Z Daily Advertiser, the Gazetteer and the New Daily Advertiser, October 1772. Quoted in Millburn, 1976, p 161.
%Z https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/583356957958361048/
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%Z Guildhall Library, London (GL), Spectaclemakers’ Company Court Minutes, MS 5213/1, np
%Z GL, Spectaclemakers’ Company Court Minutes, MS 5213/2, p 188 ff, MS 5213/3, p 186; Quaterage Records, MS 6029 np
%Z Guildhall Library, London, Clockmakers’ Company Court Minutes, MS 2710/1, pp 244
%Z Drapers’ Hall, Throgmorton St, London: Drapers’ Company Apprentice Bindings, 1655–1689, 4 December 1678
%Z Wollstonecraft, M, 1792, The Vindication of the Rights of Woman
%Z Bryan, M, 1799, A Compendius System of Astronomy
%Z The Lady's monthly museum, or Polite repository of amusement and instruction: being an assemblage of whatever can tend to please the fancy, interest the mind, or exalt the character of the British fair, By a society of ladies, Vol 7, August 1801
%Z Ibid.
%Z https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/264736.html (accessed 01 September 2019)
%Z Pepys’ Diary online, https://www.pepysdiary.com/ (accessed 1 August 2019)
%Z Pepys’ Diary online Thursday 14 January 1663, https://www.pepysdiary.com/ (accessed 1 August 2019)
%Z Pepys’ Diary online Friday 22 January 1663, https://www.pepysdiary.com/ (accessed 1 August 2019)
%Z Pepys’ Diary online Sunday 24 January 1663, https://www.pepysdiary.com/ (accessed 1 August 2019)
%Z Sage, L A, 1785, A Letter Addressed to a Female Friend
%Z Ibid.
%Z Ibid.
%Z Ibid.
%Z Ibid.
%Z Ibid.
%Z Ibid.
%Z Ibid.
%Z Martin, B, 1765, A Plain and Easy Introduction to the Newtonian Experimental Philosophy
%Z Public Ledger or The Daily Register of Commerce and Intelligence (London, England), Friday, June 5, 1761; Issue 438. 17th–18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers galegroup.com (accessed 5 August 2019)
%Z Public Ledger or The Daily Register of Commerce and Intelligence (London, England), Friday, June 5, 1761; Issue 438. 17th–18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers galegroup.com (accessed 5 August 2019)
%I The Science Museum Group
%@ 2054-5770
%B eng
%U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/science-and-the-city-the-role-of-women-in-the-science-city-london-1650-1800/
%J Science Museum Group Journal