RT Journal Article
T1 Inventor, devoted daughter, or lover? Uncovering the life and work of Victorian naval engineer Henrietta Vansittart (1833–1883)
A1 Emily Rees Koerner
YR 2022
VO 
IS Spring 2021
K1 Henrietta Vansittart
K1 nineteenth century
K1 propeller design
K1 women in science and engineering
AB This article focuses on the life and work of Victorian naval engineer Henrietta Vansittart (1833–1883), who designed and patented the Lowe-Vansittart propeller, a model of which is held in the Science Museum collections. Vansittart is a rare example of a woman who practised as an engineer in nineteenth century Britain, yet hitherto she has not been the subject of extensive academic research. This article contributes to wider efforts to recover the multifaceted roles that women have historically played in engineering, which have often been obscured or overlooked.
Using a range of primary sources, including a pamphlet written by Vansittart that is held in the Science Museum Library, alongside newspaper articles, contemporary engineering literature and personal letters, this article seeks to uncover what we can learn from her life and work. It will explore available routes into engineering for women in this period, when formal education and training opportunities were not open to them, and discuss how a woman in engineering could frame herself in this context. For Vansittart, her father’s engineering work was the vital access point to engineering. She did not receive a formal education, so it was through him that she informally learnt about the technicalities of screw propellers. This article will demonstrate the importance of family connections for women generally to enter into the field of engineering and reveal the ways in which Vansittart in particular used familial legacy to construct her position as an engineer, helping her to eschew prevalent gender norms. The article will also question why we do not know more about Vansittart’s career, by exploring the complexities of her personal life and how this may have impacted on her legacy.
NO In recent years there have been more efforts by national museums in the United Kingdom and the United States of America to locate the stories of women in their collections. See, for example, the Science Museum’s ‘Women in Science’ series (https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/women-science), the Institution of Engineering and Technology archive and library’s online exhibition ‘Women in Engineering’ (https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/women-engineering) and the Smithsonian’s ‘Because of Her Story’ project (https://womenshistory.si.edu/about).
NO Science Museum Group. Model of the Lowe-Vansittart screw propeller blades. 1874-19. Science Museum Group Collection Online (accessed 18 March 2021)
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co39465/model-of-the-lowe-vansittart-screw-propeller-blades-model-representation
NO I intentionally refer to Henrietta Vansittart by her married name throughout this article as this is what she used within her own lifetime in the surviving professional correspondence and in her writing. At the same time I recognise that there is an argument for referring to her by her maiden name and married name – Henrietta Lowe Vansittart – as has become the convention for how some women are referred to, for example, Hertha Marks Ayrton, rather than Hertha Ayrton.
NO Henrietta Vansittart also features as a case study on the ‘Women in Engineering’ Object Stories page on the Science Museum website https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/women-engineering.
NO Mathematician Ada Lovelace might also be considered another important example of a woman working across STEM disciplines from the Georgian era, though there is some debate as to whether she can be categorised as an engineer.
NO This is probably Richard Bissell Prosser (1838–1918), a patent examiner and a biographical writer.
NO An online blog has incorrectly attributed a different image as being that of Henrietta Vansittart. The image printed in the pamphlet is the only verified image of the engineer.
NO Bulwer-Lytton archives at Hertfordshire County Council Archives. Letters from Henrietta Vansittart, reference numbers: DE/K C25/136 and DE/K C37/95
NO Tyne and Wear archives: casebook reference number: HO.SN/13/31 (24 April 1879–18 October 1886)
NO The majority of archival work for this article was conducted in early 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions took effect. Since March 2020, all research had to be conducted remotely, which has shaped what further archival research could be done.
NO One notable exception to this is Hertha Ayrton, who was granted 26 patents over the course of her life (Bruton, 2018). Like Vansittart, she grew up in a family without much wealth, but did acquire a formal education. For this, family connections were also key, but in a different way to Vansittart. Through her aunt, Ayrton was encouraged to attend school and subsequently studied the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge, later obtaining a degree from the University of London (Cambridge was not awarding degrees to women at this time). Education, therefore, was crucial to Ayrton’s later success as engineer, scientist, inventor and suffragette. As Elizabeth Bruton contends, one of the distinctive aspects of Ayrton’s life was that she received so much support from friends and family to pursue her education (ibid).
NO Rachel Parsons was murdered by her former stableman in 1956 over a money dispute. For a full discussion of Parsons’ murder and the subsequent trial, see chapters 12 and 13 in Heald, 2019.
NO The Dorothée Pullinger project was based at the University of West Scotland. It investigated the training facility she created for women engineers in the south-west of Scotland. Pullinger’s route into engineering has not been discussed in much detail, instead the focus has been on her work within engineering (see Clarsen, 2003).
NO In a catalogue from the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, where Vansittart exhibited her propeller in the British section, her title is given as ‘mechanical artist’, suggesting this may have been a title she preferred to use for herself publicly. Anon, 1876, Philadelphia International Exhibition: Official Catalogue of the British Section part 1 (London: George E Eyre and William Spottiswoode).
NO The inclusion of the newspaper cutting in the Science Museum collection’s copy of the pamphlet raises its own questions: Who stuck it into the pamphlet? Was it R B Prosser, who owned the copy? And why was a 1905 newspaper running a story about screw propeller invention in the nineteenth century? It can also be noted that the article does not make reference to Henrietta Vansittart’s work on the screw propeller, only her father’s.
NO The clipping is from The Daily Graphic, Saturday 11 November 1905.
NO Letter from Henrietta Vansittart to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, N.D. Hertfordshire County Council Archives, reference number: DE/K C25/136.
NO An article from 1873 in the Western Mail newspaper also reported on the successes of the Lowe-Vansittart propeller: ‘From a personal inspection we are enabled to say that the new propeller is characterised by several advantages which will, no doubt, recommend it for almost universal adoption. Amongst these is the great economy in fuel. The strength which can be given to this propeller, owing to its peculiar configuration, renders its liability to fracture in navigating shallow waters almost nil’ (Anon, 1873, p 3). The article continues in this vein, listing the further advantages of the Lowe-Vansittart propeller.
NO Once a woman was married, her legal status was subsumed into that of her husband’s, who took full responsibility for her finances and care. See Perkin, J, 2002, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century England (London: Routledge).
NO Curiously Vansittart’s name makes an appearance as an answer to a puzzle in the Guardian newspaper in 1993. In the puzzle she is described as ‘the patron saint of engineers and political mistresses’, highlighting her dual status as engineer and lover. Anon, 1993, ‘Solutions’, the Guardian, 1 May 1993, p 63 (accessed from ProQuest Historical Newspapers on 21 March 2021).
NO Letter from Henrietta Vansittart to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, dated 16 March 1862. Hertfordshire County Council Archives. Reference number: DE/K C25/136
NO Letter from Henrietta Vansittart to Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s son, dated 22 January 1873. Hertfordshire County Council Archives. Reference number: DE/K C37/95
NO Letter from Henrietta Vansittart to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, dated 2 June 1871. Hertfordshire County Council Archives. Reference number: DE/K C25/136
NO Letter from Henrietta Vansittart to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, dated 5 June 1871. Hertfordshire County Council Archives. Reference number: DE/K C25/136
NO Case notes for Henrietta Vansittart, taken from a casebook from St Nicholas Hospital, Gosforth, reference number: HO.SN/13/31 (24 April 1879–18 October 1886).
NO It is possible to speculate that Vansittart was infected by the bacteria that causes anthrax during her visit to Newcastle. Anthrax outbreaks were common in agriculture, but became more widespread in factories from the 1830s onwards, the main symptom being blackened swellings on the skin. It was a high profile disease in the United Kingdom and the United States of America and one which scientists and state officials were keen to understand and control. See Jones, S and Teigen, P, 2008, ‘Anthrax in Transit: Practical Experience and Intellectual Exchange’, Isis, 99/3, pp 455–485.
NO For discussion on women who did not support the suffrage movement see, for example, Kent, S K, 1987, Sex and Suffrage in Britain, 1860–1914 (Princeton: Princeton University Press); Kent, S K, 1999, Gender and power in Britain, 1640–1990 (London: Routledge); and Caine, B, 1997, English Feminism, 1780–1980 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/211505
UL https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/inventor-devoted-daughter-or-lover-uncovering-the-life-and-work-of-victorian-naval-engineer-henrietta-vansittart-1833-1883/
WT Science Museum Group Journal
OL 30