By a Lady: Women and Natural History in the Americas, 1650 — 1830

In seventeenth and eighteenth-century Europe, girls and women were encouraged to take up natural history as an educational and leisurely pursuit. In late eighteenth-century England especially, botany was increasingly regarded as an appropriate female activity that would stimulate moral and spiritual improvement. Most women studied local or European flora and fauna. However, there are some who travelled across the Atlantic as part of imperial networks – often as wives or daughters of navy officers, colonial administrators, or diplomats – to explore the natural history of places such as Surinam, Mexico, Antigua, and Brazil. Others remained in Europe but studied the plants and animals of the Americas through transatlantic correspondences or travel accounts. 

This exhibition at the John Carter Brown Library explores the rich variety of ways in which European women contributed to the creation and dissemination of botanical and zoological knowledge of the Americas. From the collection, cultivation, and study of plants and insects to the production, translation, and illustration of travel journals, women were important contributors to the development of this scientific area of study that flourished in the context of empire.