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

Striving to Succeed

Science expanded, but roadblocks remained

view of the exhibition
The United States grew into an industrial and military power during the 1900s. Higher education, corporations, research institutes, and large government projects all demanded workers with scientific training.

Though more women were becoming scientists, they were still outnumbered by men. Women also faced obstacles to pay equity and advancement. They often gained promotions and awards later than their male peers. Female scientists who married or had children needed to divide their time between lab and home.

To succeed, women scientists—like the ones shown here—had to be persistent, methodical, and rigorous in their research and their careers.

Timeline of the 20th century

Selected events & people

1903 Physicist and chemist Marie Skłodowska-Curie (APS 1910) is the first woman to win a science Nobel Prize, with husband Pierre Curie
1914–18 World War I; the U.S. enters in 1917
1920 19th Amendment ratified, legally giving U.S. women the right to vote
1941–45 U.S. involvement in World War II creates a hiring boom in science and technology
1953 Discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA
1964 Civil Rights Act signed into law
1969 Astronauts from the Apollo 11 mission walk on the Moon using the work of many female mathematicians to calculate space flight trajectories, including Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan
1972 Title IX signed into law and Roe v. Wade decision
1982 Invention of the World Wide Web
1983 AIDS virus identified and Sally Ride is the first American woman to fly in space
1989 Equal Rights Amendment–which guaranteed equal rights for women–failed to be ratified
1992 NASA astronaut Mae Carol Jemison is the first Black woman in space
1994-95 BRCA1 and BRCA2, two genes linked to hereditary breast cancer, discovered by Mary-Claire King (APS 2012)

“Les Prix Nobel en 1947: Polysaccharide Phosphorylase”

lectures by Carl F. Cori and Gerty T. Cori (Stockholm, 1949)

Florence Rena Sabin

Public health leader and supporter of women

Medical researcher
1871–1953

"I hope my studies may be an encouragement to other women.”
— Florence Rena Sabin, 1929

1871 Florence Rena Sabin born in Central City, Colorado, the youngest daughter of a mining engineer and a schoolteacher

Photograph of Sabin — Portrait of Florence Rena Sabin, undated. APS.

1893 Graduates from Smith College in Massachusetts with majors in zoology and mathematics
1900 Becomes one of the first women to earn a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University
1901 Publishes an anatomical atlas of the brain while still an intern at Johns Hopkins Hospital, an unusual achievement for a young physician
1902 Begins teaching anatomy at Johns Hopkins University
1915 Becomes active in the Naples Table Association, founded to support the research projects of women scientists
1917 She is the first woman to become a full professor at Johns Hopkins
1924 Elected as the first female president of American Association of Anatomists

1925 Becomes the first woman elected to National Academy of Sciences
1925 Appointed as the first female full member (senior scientist) of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
1926–38 At Rockefeller, leads research on pathology of tuberculosis and immune system responses
1938 Retires to Colorado
1944–47 Serves as committee chair on health services in Colorado and campaigns to improve public health
1953 Dies in Denver at age 81; the state of Colorado presents a statue of her to the U.S. Capitol in 1959

Fighting a deadly disease

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial disease that infects the lungs and other parts of the body. In the 1920s and 30s, it was a serious public health concern worldwide.

Florence Sabin spent 12 years studying TB at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. She and her colleagues focused on what TB bacteria do to cells in the body’s tissues.

List of scientific staff

Rockefeller Institute, 1928–29, page 1

Microscope photographs of cells

Rockefeller Institute, 1920s?

Graph of Research Data

Rockefeller Institute, undated

Draft Report on tuberculosis research

Design for a bookplate for Florence Sabin

Lovis Schmidt (?), 1941

Barbara McClintock

Unlocking the mysteries of genes

photograph of McClintock — Barbara McClintock seated at laboratory table, examining maize, undated. APS. Gift of Mary Demerec, 1966.

Geneticist
1902–1992; APS 1946

“I know every plant in the field. I know them intimately.”
— Barbara McClintock

1902 Barbara McClintock born in Hartford, Connecticut, daughter of a homeopathic physician

1919–27 Earns three botany degrees at Cornell University, starting her lifelong study of the genetics of maize (corn)
1931 Co-publishes article establishing that maize chromosomes can exchange segments with each other
1936 Begins teaching at the University of Missouri, but is frustrated by low pay and lack of advancement
1941 Accepts position at the Carnegie Institution’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York
1944 The National Academy of Sciences elects her as its third female member
1945 Elected as first female president of the Genetics Society of America
1946 The American Philosophical Society elects her to Membership
1950 Publishes landmark paper on the nature of transposons (“jumping genes”) in maize
1957 Begins study of how maize evolved in Central and South America
1967 Retires from Cold Spring Harbor after 26 years
1971 Receives the National Medal of Science from President Richard M. Nixon
1983 At age 81, becomes the first woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1992 Dies at the age of 90, acclaimed worldwide as a pioneer in genetics

Photographic postcard of McClintock in cornfield and paper bag with notes

Pages from lecture notes, with sketches, for a graduate biology seminar at the California Institute of Technology

1954

Jumping Genes

Rebecca Kamen, acrylic on mylar, 2021

A Passion for Research

Barbara McClintock worked tirelessly to understand the genetics of maize (corn).

She discovered that genes are not fixed. Instead, they can "jump" to different positions on chromosomes, changing how an organism looks and functions.

Her insights revolutionized the field of biology, bringing her awards and clearing the way for further breakthroughs.