Mary Somerville

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Standard Name: Somerville, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Fairfax
Married Name: Mary Greig
Married Name: Mary Somerville
Eminent Scottish mathematician and scientist MS was best known as the author of four popular expository texts on science: Mechanism of the Heavens (1831), On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834), Physical Geography (1848), and On Molecular and Microscopic Science (1869). She also published the results of three of her experiments, an article on Halley's comet, and an autobiography.
Image from head-and-shoulders chalk drawing of Mary Somerville by James Rannie Swinton, 1848. She looks down, away from the viewer, wearing a white scarf and white ruffled cap, her dark smooth hair parted in the middle and pulled back. This was engraved as frontispiece to her "Physical Geography", vol. i, 1848.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Eliza Fletcher
Joanna Baillie (a well qualified judge) thought few people have so many friends as EF , and that they all warmly esteemed as well as loving her.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
2: 699
At first meeting, Fletcher did not...
Friends, Associates Maria Grey
The Shirreffs were a sociable family whose friends and acquaintances were varied. The scientist Mary Somerville , geologist Sir Charles Lyell , and Sir William Grove , inventor of the Grove battery, were numbered among...
Friends, Associates Henry Peter, Baron Brougham
Brougham had a number of friends among women writers. He was at primary school in Edinburgh with Susan Ferrier (who, however, declined to acknowledge him later, probably for political reasons). His political work brought him...
Friends, Associates Caroline Herschel
In old age CH corresponded with a distinguished fellow-scientist, Mary Somerville , and received an authorial gift of On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences with respect and gratitude.
Brock, Claire. The Comet Sweeper: Caroline Herschel’s astronomical ambition. Thriplow.
210
Reception Caroline Herschel
In old age CH was loaded with other honours, including honorary membership in the Royal Astronomical Society , along with Mary Somerville , in 1835. (Each woman said she felt it a particular honour to...
Intertextuality and Influence Maria Elizabetha Jacson
Ann B. Shteir considers that the confident tone and command of materialhere anticipate Mary Somerville 's much more advanced scientific expositions of the 1830s, but that again the tone did not perfectly match the...
Friends, Associates Jane Marcet
JM probably knew her husband's friends Edward Jenner and William Hyde Wollaston ; she certainly knew and corresponded with John Yelloy . She was a friend on her own account of Margaret Bryan ,
Marcet, Jane. “Introduction”. Chemistry in the Schoolroom: 1806, edited by Hazel Rossotti, AuthorHouse, p. i - xxi.
iii, v n6
Friends, Associates Harriet Martineau
HM 's social circle vastly expanded at this time until she knew virtually all the prominent people, particularly the political men, of her day. As she recorded in her Autobiography, however, she refused to...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Harriet Martineau
Among her subjects are Lady Byron (an occasion for HM to deplore Byron 's conduct and influence), Mary Berry , Mary Russell Mitford , Charlotte Brontë , Jane Marcet , Amelia Opie , Mary Somerville
Reception Mary Russell Mitford
She contacted several people (including the novelist Lady Dacre and the Whig hostess and diarist Lady Holland ) for support in her application, which was fuelled by the examples of the pensions granted to Sydney Morgan
Family and Intimate relationships Florence Nightingale
FN 's mother was born Frances (Fanny) Smith , the daughter of abolitionist and member of parliament William Smith . Fanny's grandfather was a wealthy London merchant. One of Fanny's acquaintances was Mary Somerville .
Dossey, Barbara Montgomery. Florence Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Healer. Springhouse Corporation.
47
Nightingale, Florence. Ever Yours, Florence Nightingale. Editors Vicinus, Martha and Bea Nergaard, Harvard University Press.
13
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Rigby
While in Florence, she met Mary Somerville , the mathematician and astronomer.
Rigby, Elizabeth. Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake. Editor Smith, Charles Eastlake, AMS Press.
2: 104
Textual Production Elizabeth Rigby
Editor John Gibson Lockhart (who became a close friend) invited her to write for the periodical after being introduced to her work by John Murray . She was only the second woman to publish in...
Friends, Associates Emily Shirreff
ES 's circle of friends included Sir William Grove (inventor of the Grove battery), scientist Mary Somerville , lawyer and Royal Society president Lord Wrottesley , astronomer Sir George Biddell Airy , Sir John Herschel
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Strutt
Women, says ES , must be essentially equal with men since both are made in God's image. But women's existing social position
Strutt, Elizabeth. The Feminine Soul. J. S. Hodson.
1
stems from man's superior physical strength, which has allowed him to seize...

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