Pursuit & Persistence: 300 Years of Women in Science (Online Exhibition)

The Doors Crack Open

Education began to open doors, but options were limited

During the 1800s in Europe and the United States, science learning shifted. The broad “natural philosophy” of the 1700s gradually split into specialized science fields that required more education.

As the U.S. population grew, colleges and universities multiplied. Most were for white men only, but some admitted white women. A few “female seminaries” became liberal arts colleges for women.

Though more American women began to attend college, graduate education remained out of reach for almost all of them. And even if they had science degrees, women found limited jobs with low pay—or no pay at all—and little room for advancement or recognition. Emma Seiler and Maria Mitchell were among those who struggled in their science careers.

Timeline of the 19th century

Selected events & people

1804–1806 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explore the Louisiana Purchase and Pacific Northwest
1820s Industrial Revolution begins to spread across U.S., transforming manufacturing and transportation
1837 Founding of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, one of the first elite U.S. women’s colleges
1843 Mathematician Ada Lovelace publishes an algorithm, considered the first computer program, for a mechanical calculating device
1848 First U.S. women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York; women’s education was a topic of discussion
1859 Naturalist Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, explaining his theory of evolution
1861–1865 American Civil War fought between the Union and the Confederacy over the expansion of slavery
1868 The APS elects Maria Mitchell, Mary Somerville, and Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, the first female Members since 1789
1869 U.S. transcontinental Railroad completed, spanning the continent
1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia celebrates the nation’s 100th birthday
1877 Female astronomers, called “computers”, begin analyzing photographs to classify stars at the Harvard College Observatory
1881 Founding of Spelman College, the oldest historically Black women’s college in the U.S., in Atlanta, Georgia
1895 German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays

On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences

by Mary Somerville, 8th ed. (London, 1849)

Visualizing Sound Waves

Rebecca Kamen, 2017, Cymatic Print

Emma Seiler

From singer to scientist

1821–1886; APS 1870
Physiologist & musician

portrait of seiler — Portrait of Emma Diruf Seiler from A Sketch of the Life of Madam Seiler, by Harford Flemming (Philadelphia, undated), APS.

“The human voice is, of all instruments, the most natural and the most perfect.”
— Emma Diruf Seiler, 1879

1821 Emma Diruf born in Würzburg, Bavaria (now Germany), daughter of the king’s physician
1841 At age 20, marries landowner Jakob Seiler and has two children with him; he soon loses most of his Swiss property to bad investments
1851 Seiler leaves her husband; travels with her children in Germany as a singer and music teacher, but loses her singing voice
1850s Collaborates with scientists and physicians in Heidelberg and Leipzig; her studies help her recover her singing voice
1861 Publishes Old and New in the Art of Singing in German in Leipzig
1866 At age 45, Seiler moves to the United States with her children; her German contacts give her letters of introduction to APS Members in Philadelphia
1868 English translation of her book The Voice in Singing is published, establishing her as an expert in vocal physiology
1870 Seiler is elected as the fifth female Member of the APS
1874 Publishes The Voice in Speaking
1886 Dies at age 65 in Philadelphia and is mourned here and in Europe

Maria Mitchell

A stargazer and trailblazer

1818–1889; APS 1869
American astronomer

“Do not look at stars as bright spots only—try to take in the vastness of the universe.”
— Maria Mitchell

1818 Maria Mitchell born to a Quaker family on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts
1820s Attends school and learns astronomy and mathematics at home from her father, a teacher and part-time astronomer
1836 Begins a low-paid, part-time position as librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum
October 1, 1847 At the age of 29, observes and records a new comet with her two-inch telescope
1848 Awarded a gold medal from Christian VIII, King of Denmark, for her comet discovery
1848 Becomes the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1865 Though she never attended college herself, Mitchell is hired as professor of astronomy and director of the astronomical observatory at Vassar Female College; she is 47 years old
1868 Fights for equal pay for female Vassar professors, with only partial success
1869 Elected as a Member of the American Philosophical Society
1888 Retires from Vassar College
1889 Dies at age 70; Maria Mitchell Association founded in 1902 in Nantucket to preserve her legacy

Correspondence which Secured for Maria Mitchell the Gold Medal Offered in 1831 by Frederick VI, King of Denmark, to the First Discoverer of a Telescopic Comet

compiled by William Mitchell (Nantucket, Mass., undated)

“Miss Mitchell’s Comet”

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 8, issue 2 (December 1847)

Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals

compiled by Phebe Mitchell Kendall (Boston, 1896)

Miss Mitchell’s Comet

Rebecca Kamen, Graphite on mylar, 2022

Depicting Nature

A picture tells a thousand words

During the 1800s, many women in the middle and upper classes learned to draw and paint.

The skills used in art and science were deeply connected: just like painting, natural history involved looking closely at the world. Some women applied their artistic skills and became expert naturalists. Their artworks were frequently reproduced as prints in books and journals.

These illustrators were often not acknowledged for their contributions to scientific knowledge.