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 | Author name Sort descending | 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 |
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 |
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 | 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 |
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 |
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