EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1800; MARIA MITCHELL P/31

 

In this post I will begin to share the story of a woman named Maria Mitchell. She lived from 1818 - 1889. Her father was William Mitchell and her mother was Lydia Coleman Mitchell. Her parents were Quakers. Maria was an avid learner. The Quaker tradition taught that both boys and girls should be educated and Maria received an education at local schools and from her father's schools and home tutoring. Her father was a great influence on her life; Maria developed her love of astronomy from his instruction on astronomy, mathematics, surveying and navigation. 

At age 12, Maria helped her father calculate the position of their home by observing a solar eclipse. By age 14, ship captains trusted her to rate their ship's chronometers for their long whaling journeys.

Maria pursued her love of learning as a young women, becoming the Nantucket Atheneum's first librarian. She and her father continued to acquire astronomical equipment and conduct observations, working for the US Coast Survey among other entities. 

WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1800; GRACEANNE LEWIS P/30

 

In this post I will continue to share the story of a woman named Graceanna Lewis. She lived from 1821 - 1912. In 1871, Graceanna sold family land and used the proceeds to finance her further research. She taught at the Foster School for Girls of Clifton Springs, New York, from 1883 - 1885.

In 1893 Graceanna received a commission from the Pennsylvania Forestry Commission to paint a set of 50 watercolour illustrations of representative leaves of trees for display at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

In addition to her direct action against slavery as part of the secret network which aided escaped African-American slaves in their fight to freedom in the years prior to the American Civil War, Graceanna was active in several other social movements of her day, in accordance with her Quaker religious beliefs, including being active in the movement for the granting of the right to vote to women. She presented a paper on "Science for Women" at the Third Congress of Women n Syracuse, New York in October 1875.

Graceanna died in 1912, at the age of 90. 

WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1800; GRACEANNA LEWIS P/29

  

In this post I will continue to share the story of a woman named Graceanna Lewis. She lived from 1821 - 1912. Following the completion of her studies in 1842, Graceanna entered the teaching profession, which was one of the few career fields open to educated women in that day, taking a position as a teacher of botany and chemistry at a boarding school in York, Pennsylvania, run by her uncle Bartholomew Fussel.

During the 1850s Graceanna moved to Philadelphia, where she worked closely with a small circle of Quakers who were active in the natural sciences. She met one of America's leading ornithologists, John Cassin of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, in 1862 and studied ornithology at an advanced lever under his tutorship for the next half decade. 

From the middle of the 1860s Graceanna began to give private lectures on the field of ornithology in Phildelphia. Her area of interest and expertise gradually spread throughout her life to include the broad spectrum of natural history, including plants, animals and mineral. 

WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1800; GRACEANNA LEWIS P/28

 

In this post I will begin to focus on a woman named Graceanna Lewis. She lived from 1821 -1912. Her father was a farmer named John Lewis and her mother was Esther Fussel. Her parents were Quakers. Graceanna's father died when she was three years old leaving her mother to raise her alone. Her mother had been a school teacher prior to marriage and was instrumental in developing a keen affection for science in Graceanna.

Graceanna's mother served as a role model in social activism by housing fugitive slaves as part of the Underground Railway to freedom in Canada. Following her mother's death, Graceanna made her own home available for this purpose, secretly providing overnight accommodation for as many as 11 runaway slaves at one time. 

Graceanna attended Kimberton Boarding School for Girls in neighbouring Kimberton, Pensylvania, at which she received instruction in many of the natural sciences including astronomy, botany, chemistry and zoology. Graceanna also showed great aptitude as a painter of natural subjects.