Mary Somerville
-
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.
Connections
Connections Sort descending | Author name | Excerpt |
---|---|---|
Education | Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon | Her aunt Julia was a great influence on BLSB
, who through her met Harriet Martineau
, Mary Somerville
, and Amelia Opie
. |
Family and Intimate relationships | Frances Power Cobbe | Lloyd was the daughter of the squire of Rhagatt in Merionethshire, Wales; a maiden aunt in the family had been a friend of the Ladies of Llangollen (Eleanor Butler
and Sarah Ponsonby
)... |
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, 2000. 47 Nightingale, Florence. Ever Yours, Florence Nightingale. Vicinus, Martha and Bea NergaardEditors , Harvard University Press, 1990. 13 |
Friends, Associates | Frances Power Cobbe | During her 1860 sojourn in Italy she declined an invitation to meet George Eliot
because the latter was living with a married man. Her friendship with distinguished scientist Mary Somerville
blossomed during this trip, and... |
Friends, Associates | Maria Edgeworth | Among her many social engagements, she attended a house-party at the home of Whig MP and agriculturalist Sir John Sebright
, whose guests included Dr Wollaston
and the science-writers Jane Marcet
and Mary Somerville
... |
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. Slagle, Judith BaileyEditor , Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999. 2: 699 |
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 |
Friends, Associates | Joanna Baillie | On the other hand she was fully appreciative of Maria Edgeworth
, whom she first met on 16 May 1813. She sounded a little patronising about Edgeworth after this first meeting, but felt an immediate... |
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 | 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, 2007. 210 |
Friends, Associates | Jessie Boucherett | Partly through her membership of the Kensington Society
(a social and political discussion group of about fifty women inaugurated in 1865), JB
broadened her acquaintance with significant members of the feminist movement, including Frances Power Cobbe |
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, 2006, p. i - xxi. iii, v n6 |
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 | 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... |
Friends, Associates | Augusta Ada Byron | AAB
became friendly with and sought mathematical guidance from Mary Somerville
. Patterson, Elizabeth Chambers. Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815-1840. Martinus Nijhoff, 1983. 148-9 |
Timeline
11 October 1797
A British victory over the Dutch in the naval battle of Camperdown restored the reputation of the navy
after the mutiny at Spithead earlier that year.
1835
Caroline Herschel
and Mary Somerville
were awarded honorary memberships by the Royal Astronomical Society
.
17 February 1847
The Whittington Club
(named after the poor boy who became Lord Mayor of London) held its first meeting. Unlike traditional gentlemen's clubs, it welcomed women and lower-middle-class men.
2 May 1857
A grand dome designed by Panizzi
was opened in what had been the central courtyard of the British Museum
.
1862
Educator Anne Sheepshanks
was awarded honorary membership in the Royal Society
.
April 1879
James Murray
—editor since 1 March of what was to become the Oxford English Dictionary—issued an Appeal for readers to supply illustrative quotations.
October 1879
Somerville College
, one of the two first residential women's colleges at Oxford University, opened its doors to students.
1886
Eva Hope
's Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era singled out Mary Somerville
, Harriet Martineau
, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
, Charlotte Brontë
, George Eliot
, and Felicia Hemans
.
1886
The working-class, popular, evangelical writer Marianne Farningham
(born Mary Ann Hearne or Hearn
) published as Eva Hope a book called Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era which reveals unexpected feminist sympathies.
By 18 August 1888
Lucy Walford
published Four Biographies from Blackwood's.