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See Yourself in Me: A Spotlight on Women in STEM Film (Full Documentary)

Celebrating Oberlin Women in Science and Medicine

All this month, the Science Library is highlighting the lives, research and medical breakthroughs of Oberlin College affiliated women, with displays at the library’s entrance, social media posts, and photographs of notable women added to the portrait collection on the north wall.  That small collection was male-dominated for decades - it was high time to represent the achievements of scientists and medical professionals who identify as female.  

The recent additions to the portrait wall are June E. Osborn ‘57 (photo above), Joanne Chory ‘77 and Matilda Arabella Evans, who attended Oberlin in the late 1880s, leaving in 1891.

Thanks to Science Library Associate Jennifer Schreiner for creating the elements for the display on the bulletin board.  We invite you to take a look!  The display is summarized on the ObieSciLib Instragram post on March 8.

See also ObieSciLib on Tumblr for a look at the current Oberlin College women of science.  Women in all of the natural science departments regularly publish research articles, numbering over 40 articles in the past four years alone.  Books also have been published recently; see these authors in OBIS: Marta Laskowski, Jillian Scudder, and Lynne Bianchi.  The tradition of scientific achievement and contributing to scientific knowledge continues.

Science Saturday

This week we present Conversations on Chemistry: In Which the Elements of that Science are Familiarly Explained and Illustrated by Experiments and Plates, written anonymously by the English author Jane Haldimand Marcet (1769-1858). The first edition of the book was published in 1805, with many subsequent editions in both England and the United States. Here in Special Collections we hold an 1809 edition published in New Haven from Sidney’s Press for Increase Cooke & Co., and an 1830 edition published in Harford for Cooke & Co. The 1809 edition has illustrations that are based on drawings by Jane Marcet.

Jane Marcet (maiden name Haldimand) and her husband, Swiss physician Alexander Marcet were very involved in the literary and scientific circles in London. Alexander was a fellow of the  Royal Society, and Jane attended many lectures there with him. Jane Marcet is known for popularizing scientific principles, especially the works of chemist Humphry Davy, whose lectures Jane attended. As is clearly shown by the many reprintings, Jane Marcet’s Conversations on Chemistry was wildly popular. The book was framed as a conversation between a teacher Mrs. B and her two pupils, Emily and Caroline. In the preface to the 1809 edition, Jane Marcet explained she wanted to write a book on chemistry especially to educate women on the subject because it was something that really caught her own interest. Jane wrote:

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Women in Anthropology: MARGARET ALICE MURRAY

In the 100 years Margaret Murray was on this Earth she became a driving force for women in anthropology and in academia, earning the titles of archaeologst, Egyptologist, author, lecturer, Folkorist, and feminist. 

Murray was born to wealthy English parents in Calcutta, India in 1863. She spent her early years living in Britain and Germany before settling back in India as a nurse until 1887 when she moved to England and became a social worker.

She began attending the University College London (UCL) at the age of 31 in 1894 (proving that there is no set age to being your academic career) and by 1898 she was working as a junior lecturer of linguistics in the Egyptology department. 

In 1902 she joined British Egyptologist Sir William Flinders Petrie for 2 field seasons in Egypt. During the first field season she helped to excavate a temple to Osiris, the Osireion, built during the New kingdom (roughly 16th to 11th century BCE) under the Pharaoh Seti I (pictured below). 

After returning to London, she became a big supporter of the first wave feminist movement and joined the Women’s Social and Political Union. Murray initiated many campaigns to change the culture for women in academia and make it more accessible. At her insistence for inclusivity, the UCL common room was opened to women and later a redesigned room was constructed and named the Margaret Murray Room. 

During World War I, she began studying and publishing articles and books on the history of witchcraft in Europe and Folklorism. Eventually, in 1927 she was awarded an honorary doctorate for her work in Egyptology. Throughout her career she wrote several books and many articles on Egyptology, Folklorism and also authored her own autobiography titled “My First Hundred Years” published in the year of her death 1963. 

It is challenging for modern day academics to truly comprehend the different era and culture for a woman in anthropology during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. Although, I am sure many of us agree that the academic climate of today oftentimes has much more progress to make. In any case, Margaret Murray was one of the first women to ‘make it’ within this scientific field dominated by a white men, and her contributions to academia were significant, well known, and respected.

However, this does not mean she was perfect. Much of her academic work and theory, especially in the field of Folklorism, is often criticized. Anthropology has changed quite a bit since Murray first entered the field over 158 years ago, and our views and methods of understanding are extremely different today.

What will not change is Murray’s solidified importance as an academic mind and as a woman in archaeology. She paved the way for other female scholars, and she fought for their advancement and their voices along the way. 

Refs:

Drower, Margaret S. (2004). “Margaret Alice Murray”. In Getzel M. Cohen; Martha Joukowsky (eds.). Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 109–141

Margaret Murray. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biography/margaret-murray/

Margaret Murray. 25 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Murray.

“Margaret Murray”. Stories From The Museum Floor, 2021, https://storiesfromthemuseumfloor.wordpress.com/2018/03/02/margaret-murray/.

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About the podcast: The I Dig It Podcast was created by Alyssa and Michaela in March of 2020. Our goal for this podcast was to provide archaeology enthusiasts with insight into the student perspective of navigating the world of academia and the job market for archaeology and anthropology. Guests on the podcast include people from all different parts of their career, including highschool, undergrad, grad school, post doc, and early career!

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ESBAT • oil on panel • 2019 for the RITUAL exhibition at Haven Gallery in New York

The English Patient — Almàsy + landscapes

Women from three different countries training to become doctors at Women's Medical College of Philadelphia in 1885. From left to right: Dr. Anandibai Joshi (from India), Dr. Kei Okami (from Japan) and Dr. Sabat Islambouli (from Syria). All were among the first women to practice Western medicine in their respective countries.

Azellia White (1913-2019) was one of the first African-American women to obtain a pilot’s license in the US. She is seen as a trailblazer for women and African Americans alike in the field of aviation.

She obtained her license in 1946, and co-founded the Sky Ranch Flying Service, an airport and flight school open to African Americans in the Houston area.