1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,400 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,920 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. A few weeks ago, I 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:21,239 Speaker 1: took a little trip to England, and while I was there, 5 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:23,800 Speaker 1: I took the train to Oxford and I visited the 6 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:28,760 Speaker 1: Ashmolean Museum. They currently have an exhibit called in Bloom, 7 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:32,720 Speaker 1: How Plants Changed Our World, and I really enjoyed that. 8 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:35,120 Speaker 1: And one of the things I saw in that exhibition 9 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:39,840 Speaker 1: was a facsimile of Elizabeth Blackwell's book A Curious Erbil. 10 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:42,280 Speaker 1: There's a longer title than that, which we will be 11 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 1: reading later. I'm saving it, savoring the long title. So 12 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: I knew this was a different Elizabeth Blackwell from the 13 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: one we have covered on the show before, who became 14 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,080 Speaker 1: the first woman in the US to earn an MD 15 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,279 Speaker 1: in eighteen forty nine. Our episode on that Elizabeth Blackwell 16 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 1: came out in twenty fourteen. This Elizabeth Blackwell was born 17 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:10,119 Speaker 1: in London, more than a century before the American doctor Blackwell, 18 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,640 Speaker 1: and was known for her achievements as a botanical illustrator. 19 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:18,080 Speaker 1: And if you read articles about Elizabeth Blackwell, including fairly 20 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:21,640 Speaker 1: recent ones. It is very possible to highly likely that 21 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,880 Speaker 1: you will get some incorrect details about who she was 22 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,919 Speaker 1: and where she was born. Some of these errors actually 23 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: date back to her own lifetime, and then they were 24 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,800 Speaker 1: repeated and embellished in the decades that followed. And one 25 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 1: reason is that more than a decade into their marriage, 26 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 1: Elizabeth's husband, Alexander became infamous for reasons that we are 27 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:47,800 Speaker 1: going to get into. People writing about him naturally wanted 28 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:51,600 Speaker 1: to include some details about his well known wife. He 29 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,480 Speaker 1: had been born in Aberdeen, so people just assumed that 30 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: she had two and eventually people found and Elizabeth from Aberdeen, 31 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,120 Speaker 1: who seemed to be about the right age to have 32 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,960 Speaker 1: married Alexander. She had been baptized in seventeen oh nine. 33 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,359 Speaker 1: And this other person was Elizabeth Blatrie, who was a 34 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,640 Speaker 1: daughter of a merchant, and she was baptized in seventeen 35 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:15,880 Speaker 1: oh seven, so their ages seemed to match up, but 36 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:18,400 Speaker 1: that was the wrong Elizabeth. Yeah, and I found this 37 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 1: situation very confusing when I was researching this, because there 38 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:24,920 Speaker 1: were two wildly different stories of who this person was, 39 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: no explanation for the contradiction, and most of the credit 40 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:33,880 Speaker 1: for correcting this information goes to Janet Styles Tyson, who 41 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: completed a PhD thesis on Elizabeth Blackwell in twenty twenty one. 42 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 1: Tyson's thesis points out that there's really nothing to substantiate 43 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:48,079 Speaker 1: a marriage between Elizabeth Blatrie and Alexander Blackwell, but there 44 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:53,160 Speaker 1: was an Elizabeth Simpson who married an Alexander Blackwell in 45 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: Holborn on October first of seventeen thirty three. When she 46 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: finished her thesis, though Tyson could not verify the these 47 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: were the same Elizabeth and Alexander as we're talking about today, 48 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:08,360 Speaker 1: those names, all the names involved were common enough that 49 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: it was within the realm of possibility that they could 50 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: just be different people. But then in twenty twenty two, 51 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,800 Speaker 1: Tyson was working on an essay to go into a 52 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:23,080 Speaker 1: new edition of Elizabeth Blackwell's herbal She was trying to 53 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 1: personally examine as many copies of the book as she 54 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:30,399 Speaker 1: possibly could, and that took her to David M. Rubinstein 55 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University, and the 56 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 1: copy in that collection included a two page preface that 57 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: had not been in any of the other copies that 58 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: Tyson looked at, and it was a preface that Blackwell 59 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: had written herself, and it was dated April twelfth, seventeen 60 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: thirty nine. And in that preface she said that she 61 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:57,360 Speaker 1: was the daughter of Leonard Simpson. So Elizabeth Simpson was 62 00:03:57,360 --> 00:03:59,720 Speaker 1: born in the city of London on April twenty third, 63 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: the sixteen ninety nine, to Leonard and Alice Simpson. She was 64 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:07,880 Speaker 1: baptized on May fourth of that year. The Simpsons lodged 65 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,480 Speaker 1: with a shoemaker who was also named Simpson, so that 66 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: might have been their relative. In this newly discovered preface, 67 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,240 Speaker 1: Blackwell said of herself quote, I, from my very infancy 68 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:24,520 Speaker 1: showed an inclination to imitate pictures and to attempt drawing 69 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:28,039 Speaker 1: such things as pleased me. Whether this proceeded from the 70 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 1: strong impressions made on my tender brain by the agreeable 71 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: objects I was daily surrounded with my father, Leonard Simpson, 72 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:39,320 Speaker 1: being a painter or a genius born with me, I 73 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:43,919 Speaker 1: can't determine. Sadly, Elizabeth did not get the benefit of 74 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 1: much art instruction from her father, who died when she 75 00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:50,240 Speaker 1: was still very young, but as she got older she 76 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:54,760 Speaker 1: developed a particular love for drawing and painting flowers, and 77 00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:58,560 Speaker 1: for representing them in her needlework. She was also very 78 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:01,720 Speaker 1: curious about the flowers and plants that she encountered out 79 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:04,320 Speaker 1: in the world, especially the ones that were growing in 80 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 1: the wild. But when she tried to look these plants 81 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:11,760 Speaker 1: up in books, she often found herself frustrated and dissatisfied. 82 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:15,919 Speaker 1: And this was because, in her words, the illustrations in 83 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 1: those books were often quote too small and confused to 84 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:24,360 Speaker 1: be instructive. As she grew up, Elizabeth Blackwell continued pursuing 85 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: her childhood love of learning about drawing and painting plants 86 00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:33,040 Speaker 1: and flowers. Eventually, she started working on solving that problem 87 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:37,360 Speaker 1: of two small and cramped illustrations, embarking on a project 88 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:41,400 Speaker 1: of making full size depictions of plants, with each picture 89 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: on its own page. It is possible that she was 90 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,960 Speaker 1: inspired by the work of Maria Sibulia Median, who we 91 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,599 Speaker 1: have covered on the show before, and who published three 92 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:55,360 Speaker 1: volumes of flower engravings between sixteen seventy five and sixteen eighty. 93 00:05:56,440 --> 00:06:00,560 Speaker 1: After Blackwell finished some samples of these full page flowers drawings, 94 00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 1: she showed them to some gentlemen of her acquaintance, who, 95 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: in her words, were quote pleased to commend the performance. However, 96 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:12,159 Speaker 1: She went on to say, quote, but this scene of 97 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 1: pleasure was interrupted by some misfortunes which deprived mister Blackwell 98 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: of all employment and so far reduced us that I 99 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,960 Speaker 1: found it necessary to consider what I could do towards 100 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,360 Speaker 1: supporting my family. Her friends encouraged her to quote make 101 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:34,640 Speaker 1: proposals for designing, engraving, and publishing by subscription a set 102 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,440 Speaker 1: of prints of the physical plants, which work they judged 103 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: would be very useful and acceptable to the public. So 104 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:46,360 Speaker 1: that mister Blackwell was of course her husband, Alexander Blackwell. 105 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:50,360 Speaker 1: They had gotten married in seventeen thirty three. There are 106 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 1: various stories floating around about the two of them having 107 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,039 Speaker 1: eloped in secret, but this seems to have been a 108 00:06:56,080 --> 00:07:01,279 Speaker 1: fabrication that appeared in the early nineteenth century. Alexander's birth 109 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:04,839 Speaker 1: date is unclear, but since he was baptized in seventeen 110 00:07:04,839 --> 00:07:07,720 Speaker 1: oh nine, it is possible that he was at least 111 00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:12,400 Speaker 1: a decade younger than Elizabeth. Alexander was from a respectable family. 112 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: His father, Thomas, was a minister who served as moderator 113 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: of the General Assembly of the Church at Scotland, as 114 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:22,560 Speaker 1: well as a professor of divinity and principal at Mareschal 115 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:27,119 Speaker 1: College in Aberdeen. Alexander had a brother, who was also 116 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 1: called Thomas, who was a classical scholar and historian and 117 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:35,640 Speaker 1: the author of multiple books. Most sources about Alexander say 118 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:39,240 Speaker 1: that he had a university education and studied medicine in 119 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: Leiden in the Netherlands, but there's no clear documentation of 120 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:46,560 Speaker 1: this anywhere, and just no record of his ever earning 121 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:50,760 Speaker 1: a degree. As for the misfortunes which deprived mister Blackwell 122 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:54,800 Speaker 1: of all employment, some accounts say that Alexander was practicing 123 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:59,560 Speaker 1: medicine without the qualifications to actually do so, and that 124 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:03,320 Speaker 1: after this re suspicion, he and Elizabeth had to flee 125 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:07,240 Speaker 1: to London. That doesn't really make sense, though, since Elizabeth 126 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:10,000 Speaker 1: was from London and that is where they got married. 127 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: These accounts make it sound like the couple had to 128 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:15,520 Speaker 1: start over in a place that was new to them, 129 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:18,120 Speaker 1: but it seems like they were already in London when 130 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:22,520 Speaker 1: this supposed quackery allegation would have happened. In Scotland, the 131 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: misfortunes that were connected to Alexander's work as a printer 132 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:30,840 Speaker 1: are easier to substantiate. About three years before he and 133 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:34,599 Speaker 1: Elizabeth got married, he had started working as a corrector 134 00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:37,760 Speaker 1: at a press belonging to a man named mister Wilkins, 135 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:41,680 Speaker 1: and then after their marriage, Alexander decided to start his 136 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 1: own press, and it's possible that his startup costs came 137 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:50,280 Speaker 1: from Elizabeth's dowry. But the Stationer's Guild had a monopoly 138 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 1: on printing and a person had to complete an apprenticeship 139 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:57,680 Speaker 1: before they could become a printer on their own. Alexander 140 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 1: Blackwell had not gone through an apprenticeship and was not 141 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:03,200 Speaker 1: a member of the Stationer's Guild, so he faced a 142 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:08,480 Speaker 1: lawsuit almost immediately. On July tenth, seventeen thirty four, he 143 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:12,520 Speaker 1: appeared in court under charges that he quote exercised the 144 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:16,640 Speaker 1: art and mystery of a printer, not having served regular 145 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 1: apprenticeship in the trade. Alexander was fined, and apparently he 146 00:09:21,679 --> 00:09:24,840 Speaker 1: did not have the money to pay that fine. Two 147 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 1: months later, he was declared bankrupt. According to some accounts, 148 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:31,800 Speaker 1: he spent two years in a debtor's prison, but the 149 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:36,920 Speaker 1: bankruptcy would have allowed him to avoid imprisonment. Regardless of 150 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 1: whether Alexander was imprisoned or not. After all of this happened, 151 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:43,720 Speaker 1: it fell to Elizabeth to try to provide for them, 152 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:45,959 Speaker 1: and we will get to that after a sponsor break. 153 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:59,320 Speaker 1: Elizabeth Blackwell's plan of supporting her family and paying off 154 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: her husband's bad debts by publishing prints of medicinal plants 155 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:06,480 Speaker 1: required her to develop a whole network of contacts and 156 00:10:06,559 --> 00:10:10,240 Speaker 1: supporters in the world of English medicine, alchemy, and botany. 157 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:15,200 Speaker 1: In August of seventeen thirty five, physician Alexander Stewart wrote 158 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:19,880 Speaker 1: a letter of introduction to Sir Hans Sloane, President of 159 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:24,400 Speaker 1: the Royal Society, describing Blackwell as the quote niece of 160 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:27,720 Speaker 1: Sir William Simpson, one of the Barons of the Exchequer, 161 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:32,199 Speaker 1: whom you know, and first cousin to my Lady Cook Windford, 162 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:36,880 Speaker 1: whom you also know. This letter described Blackwell as a 163 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:40,840 Speaker 1: quote very ingenious person and said she was embarking on 164 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: a project to create illustrations of about five hundred medicinal 165 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:48,640 Speaker 1: plants and have them engraved. It also said that she 166 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:52,360 Speaker 1: already had the support of Isaac Rand, director of the 167 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:56,760 Speaker 1: Apothecary's Physic Garden now known as Chelsea Physic Garden, where 168 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:02,079 Speaker 1: the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries grew their medicinal plants. Rand 169 00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:05,400 Speaker 1: had helped Blackwell develop the proposal for this project, which 170 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:08,880 Speaker 1: was also being provided for Sloan to review. Along with 171 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:12,880 Speaker 1: the letter of introduction. Blackwell also had the support of 172 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:16,880 Speaker 1: doctor Richard Meade, fellow of both the Royal Society and 173 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 1: the Royal College of Physicians, and Thomas Pellett, President of 174 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:25,240 Speaker 1: the Royal College of Physicians. Her first prints of these 175 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:28,720 Speaker 1: plants were just the illustrations of the plants labeled with 176 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:33,280 Speaker 1: their names, but eventually she also started including descriptive text 177 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:37,640 Speaker 1: about the plants and their uses and preparations. A major 178 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: source of that text was the seventeen twenty one edition 179 00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:46,840 Speaker 1: of the Dispensatory of the Royal College of Physicians. Joseph Miller, 180 00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:50,560 Speaker 1: Master of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, was also on 181 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:55,560 Speaker 1: board with Blackwell's project, and his Botanicum of Finchinale, or 182 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:59,080 Speaker 1: a Compendious Herbal Giving an Account of all such Plants 183 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:01,920 Speaker 1: as are now used in the Practice of physic was 184 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:06,719 Speaker 1: another major source for the descriptive text. Neither Botanicum of 185 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:11,400 Speaker 1: Finchinale nor the Dispensatory was illustrated, so the idea was 186 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:15,040 Speaker 1: to bring all of this information under one cover, making 187 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:19,000 Speaker 1: the illustrations more useful to people who didn't already have 188 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:23,800 Speaker 1: one of these other texts. In seventeen thirty six, Blackwell, 189 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:27,560 Speaker 1: either by herself or with Alexander, since it's not totally 190 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:31,160 Speaker 1: clear whether he was imprisoned or not, rented lodgings at 191 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:34,719 Speaker 1: for Swan Walk that was across the street from the 192 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:38,080 Speaker 1: physic Garden, and that gave Blackwell easy access to the 193 00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:41,520 Speaker 1: plants so that she could draw them from life. On 194 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,720 Speaker 1: April twenty seventh of that same year, her first child, 195 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:48,920 Speaker 1: a son named William, was baptized. Tragically, William died a 196 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:51,720 Speaker 1: few days later and was buried at Saint Luke's Chelsea 197 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:56,079 Speaker 1: on May third. This was very sadly not the family's 198 00:12:56,120 --> 00:13:00,240 Speaker 1: only loss in an era of widespread child mortality. A 199 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:03,800 Speaker 1: daughter named Blanche was born in seventeen thirty seven and 200 00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:08,240 Speaker 1: died the following year. Blackwell started selling flower prints to 201 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:13,080 Speaker 1: subscribers through printer Samuel Harding in seventeen thirty seven, and 202 00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:17,560 Speaker 1: these serialized sets of pages were called facicules and uncolored 203 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:22,480 Speaker 1: faccules cost a shilling each. Colored versions, which Blackwell hand 204 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:27,480 Speaker 1: colored herself after printing, cost two shillings. She produced a 205 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:30,760 Speaker 1: faccule of four prints a week every week for one 206 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:34,000 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty weeks, and that gave her an ongoing 207 00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:37,840 Speaker 1: source of steady income. As she was working on this project, 208 00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:41,560 Speaker 1: her subscribers could collate all the faccules and have them 209 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: bound once they were complete, which means there is a 210 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,679 Speaker 1: lot of variation among the more than one hundred bound 211 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:52,959 Speaker 1: volumes that exist in libraries and museum collections today. Most 212 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:57,199 Speaker 1: of these are in the UK, Western Europe, and North America. 213 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:02,520 Speaker 1: Four illustrations a week is a lot, especially considering that 214 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:05,960 Speaker 1: Blackwell didn't really take breaks for things like pregnancy or 215 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:09,000 Speaker 1: giving birth, or caring for a newborn or grieving the 216 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:12,320 Speaker 1: death of a child. She had to work really quickly. 217 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:15,880 Speaker 1: She focused on making sure that outlines were correct, and 218 00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:18,440 Speaker 1: then she did less shading if she was running out 219 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:22,280 Speaker 1: of time. Her production schedule was also tied to what 220 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 1: was growing or blooming at the Apothecary's physic garden. She 221 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:29,800 Speaker 1: incorporated other research, but the plants that she could draw 222 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:33,640 Speaker 1: from life really took priority, and that meant there wasn't 223 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:36,800 Speaker 1: always a logical order to the fascicules or the bound 224 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:41,080 Speaker 1: copies that were made from them. She wrote of these limitations, quote, 225 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:45,080 Speaker 1: I homely hope my subscribers will show their goodness in 226 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:48,680 Speaker 1: pardoning these defects, and that my good friends, who were 227 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:52,120 Speaker 1: anyways helpful to me in carrying on this work, will 228 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,680 Speaker 1: accept my most hearty thanks. If it should please God 229 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:58,080 Speaker 1: to give my life and health, I shall employ my 230 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: leisure in finishing the plate, rectifying mistakes, and supplying defects 231 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:06,920 Speaker 1: that they may be more complete. Some accounts say that 232 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:10,200 Speaker 1: Blackwell's husband helped her with the text of the book, 233 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 1: including providing information about the medicinal uses for the plants 234 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:19,280 Speaker 1: or translating the plant's names into different languages. Sometimes this 235 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:22,280 Speaker 1: work is described as happening from his cell in the 236 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:26,240 Speaker 1: Debtors prison, but it is not fully clear how involved 237 00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:30,120 Speaker 1: he was in this part of this production, since most 238 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 1: of the text has a clear connection to the Royal 239 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:39,239 Speaker 1: College of Physicians dispensatory and Joseph Miller's Botanicum Efficionality. Alexander 240 00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:43,320 Speaker 1: was definitely involved in the arrangements and contracts for getting 241 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:47,080 Speaker 1: the book printed, though under the doctrine of coverture, married 242 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:50,160 Speaker 1: women in the UK did not have their own legal 243 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:55,000 Speaker 1: existence beyond that of their husband, Alexander's signature is the 244 00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:59,560 Speaker 1: one on formal agreements related to printing and distribution, although 245 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:03,920 Speaker 1: there are are also explicit acknowledgments that the work was Elizabeth's. 246 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 1: Blackwell likely also had some help with some of the 247 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:12,200 Speaker 1: steps that were required to produce these prints, but she's 248 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:16,240 Speaker 1: generally recognized as creating a watercolor drawing of each plant 249 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 1: and also hands coloring the printed pages for the subscribers 250 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:23,880 Speaker 1: that paid for them to be colored. She also either 251 00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:27,600 Speaker 1: etched or engraved the plates that they were printed from. 252 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:32,240 Speaker 1: Engraving and etching are two different ways of preparing a 253 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:35,960 Speaker 1: plate for printing by incizing the design into the surface. 254 00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:40,400 Speaker 1: Those kinds of printing techniques are known as italio printing, 255 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:44,720 Speaker 1: and that's in contrast to things like woodblock printing that 256 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:46,960 Speaker 1: we've talked about on the show before, where the parts 257 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:49,560 Speaker 1: of the wood that are not part of the design 258 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:54,240 Speaker 1: are removed. That category of printing is known as relief printing. 259 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:59,840 Speaker 1: Contemporary sources describe Blackwell's work using the terms engraving and 260 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:06,080 Speaker 1: etching almost interchangeably, but these are different techniques. Blackwell's illustrations 261 00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:09,840 Speaker 1: appear to be etched, while the pages containing explanatory text 262 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:14,520 Speaker 1: look like they were engraved. Etching is also something Blackwell 263 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,440 Speaker 1: probably could have learned to do more easily than engraving 264 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:21,359 Speaker 1: because of the steps involved. There are documents in which 265 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:25,520 Speaker 1: Blackwell mentions using a calligrapher for the explanatory text, so 266 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:28,720 Speaker 1: it's possible that she did the etchings for the illustrations 267 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:34,560 Speaker 1: while someone else engraved the calligraphy. Regardless, by illustrating the plants, 268 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:38,040 Speaker 1: making the plates, and coloring them, she was doing three 269 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:42,280 Speaker 1: different jobs that were more often handled by completely different people. 270 00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:46,399 Speaker 1: When Blackwell had finished one hundred and fifty sets of 271 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:51,520 Speaker 1: four illustrations in seventeen thirty nine, bookseller John North printed 272 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:54,719 Speaker 1: them as a complete two volume book under the title 273 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:58,520 Speaker 1: A Curious Irbil, containing five hundred cuts of the most 274 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,520 Speaker 1: useful plants which are now used in the practice of 275 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:06,240 Speaker 1: physic engraved on folio copper plates after drawings taken from 276 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:09,600 Speaker 1: the life by Elizabeth Blackwell, to which has added a 277 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:13,000 Speaker 1: short description of the plants and their common uses in 278 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:17,440 Speaker 1: physic that the is of course spelled ye, which I love. 279 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:21,760 Speaker 1: At the time, the word curious had a lot of 280 00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:25,200 Speaker 1: meanings that it does not really carry today, including made 281 00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:30,240 Speaker 1: with care, carefully worked out or accurate. This is Blackwell's 282 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:34,760 Speaker 1: only known published work. The printed volumes of The Curious 283 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:39,040 Speaker 1: Irbil included an endorsement that she had also printed alongside 284 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:44,320 Speaker 1: calls for subscribers, dated October one, seventeen thirty five. It 285 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:48,560 Speaker 1: read quote, this undertaking was honored with the following public 286 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:53,679 Speaker 1: recommendation by the underwritten gentlemen, we whose names are underwritten, 287 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,800 Speaker 1: having seen a considerable number of the drawings from which 288 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,560 Speaker 1: the plates are to be engraved, and likewise some of 289 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:02,879 Speaker 1: the color plants think it's a justice done to the 290 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:06,400 Speaker 1: public to declare our satisfaction with them and our good 291 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 1: opinion of the capacity of the undertaker. This was followed 292 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:14,560 Speaker 1: by the names of nine men, five of them mds. 293 00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: They included some of the men that we have already mentioned, 294 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:23,159 Speaker 1: Richard Meade, Alexander Stewart, Joseph Miller, and Isaac Rand. Different 295 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:27,000 Speaker 1: copies of her books also contained an assortment of dedications 296 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,480 Speaker 1: to various learned men who had supported her work or 297 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:33,840 Speaker 1: helped her with it. This rbel was one of the 298 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:37,840 Speaker 1: most comprehensive texts on medicinal plants that was available in 299 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:40,760 Speaker 1: Europe in the early mid eighteenth century, and it was 300 00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:44,040 Speaker 1: the first major erbel to be published by a British woman. 301 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:48,000 Speaker 1: It included plants from the Americas in Asia, places where 302 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:52,040 Speaker 1: England neither had or had previously had colonies, which meant 303 00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:55,119 Speaker 1: there were a lot of plants that Europeans had never 304 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:58,439 Speaker 1: seen before included in it. The fact that it was 305 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:02,520 Speaker 1: illustrated made it a use full reference for doctor's apothecaries 306 00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:05,959 Speaker 1: and others who needed to gather and prepare their own plants, 307 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,679 Speaker 1: including women who wanted to grow medicinal plants in their kitchen, 308 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:14,880 Speaker 1: gardens or Both were also popular as literature, so Blackwell's 309 00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:18,080 Speaker 1: readers also included lay people who were able to afford 310 00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:21,240 Speaker 1: something as expensive as a five hundred page book for 311 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:26,560 Speaker 1: their libraries. While her book was widely praised in being 312 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: endorsed by the Royal College of Physicians, there were critics 313 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:34,399 Speaker 1: who dismissed it for not including new information. While it 314 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:36,800 Speaker 1: was true that most of the text came from two 315 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:41,320 Speaker 1: well established references, neither of those books had been illustrated. 316 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:45,280 Speaker 1: We will get to Elizabeth Blackwell's life after finishing her 317 00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:58,840 Speaker 1: book after a sponsor break. Sources are contradictory when it 318 00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:04,159 Speaker 1: comes to Alexander Under Blackwell's debt, bankruptcy, possible imprisonment, and 319 00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:07,480 Speaker 1: exactly how it was all affected by the publication of 320 00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:13,040 Speaker 1: Elizabeth Blackwell's Curious Herbal. Some say that the proceeds allowed 321 00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:16,280 Speaker 1: Elizabeth to pay off Alexander's debts and get him out 322 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,760 Speaker 1: of prison, but then he kept racking up new ones. 323 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:24,320 Speaker 1: Something that is more clearly documented is that the Blackwells 324 00:21:24,359 --> 00:21:27,960 Speaker 1: had to work to protect the copyright on Elizabeth's work, 325 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,679 Speaker 1: and that by extension, they were protecting the income that 326 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:34,960 Speaker 1: they could earn from that work. On March ninth of 327 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:37,800 Speaker 1: seventeen thirty eight, they filed a complaint at the Court 328 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:41,840 Speaker 1: of Chancery against eight named men and quote diverse other 329 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:47,600 Speaker 1: persons for infringing on their copyright. The idea of authors 330 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,600 Speaker 1: having legal ownership of their work was fairly new in 331 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:54,400 Speaker 1: England and was first established under the Statute of Anne 332 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:59,399 Speaker 1: of seventeen ten. Prior to that, ownership and copyright had 333 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:02,240 Speaker 1: been regularly by the Stationers Guild rather than by the 334 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:07,600 Speaker 1: government or the courts. Bound copies of Blackwell's Herbal probably 335 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,399 Speaker 1: would have been covered under the Statute of Ann, but 336 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:12,840 Speaker 1: only because they were in the form of a book. 337 00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:18,040 Speaker 1: Unbound fascicules would not have been protected, and that's a 338 00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:21,320 Speaker 1: gap that was closed under the Engravings Act of seventeen 339 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:24,840 Speaker 1: thirty five, also known as the Hogarth Act, after painter 340 00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:27,879 Speaker 1: and engraver William Hogarth, who we have covered on the 341 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:31,160 Speaker 1: show before. Yeah, so that was just a few years 342 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,479 Speaker 1: before Blackwell filed this suit, and her suit was the 343 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:38,639 Speaker 1: first copyright case in England involving works created by a 344 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:44,120 Speaker 1: female artist. Witnesses in the case included apothecary Robert Nichols, 345 00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:48,400 Speaker 1: who testified to supplying Blackwell with plants to draw, and 346 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:52,879 Speaker 1: Blackwell's brother Elizabeth Simpson, who testified about seeing Blackwell work 347 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:56,320 Speaker 1: on the book, and also William Hogarth, who was an 348 00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 1: expert witness and testified about the work that was being 349 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:04,280 Speaker 1: sold by these other men being copies. This case also 350 00:23:04,359 --> 00:23:07,399 Speaker 1: involved a lot of discussion that grew from law and 351 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:12,040 Speaker 1: the concepts that covered. Being fairly new, like Blackwell's artwork 352 00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:16,480 Speaker 1: was drawn from life, not from her own imagination, did 353 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:19,800 Speaker 1: that fall under the law's definitions, which included a lot 354 00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:26,520 Speaker 1: of references to invention and design. Ultimately, yes, Also, how 355 00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:28,920 Speaker 1: could the court account for the fact that the work 356 00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:32,560 Speaker 1: was created by a woman while the legal ownership was 357 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:37,000 Speaker 1: with her husband. In this case, both of the Blackwells 358 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,800 Speaker 1: were plaintiffs, and the court acknowledged Elizabeth as proprietor of 359 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:44,360 Speaker 1: the work. In the end, the Blackwells were awarded an 360 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:48,040 Speaker 1: injunction that was supposed to stop the other publishers from 361 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,879 Speaker 1: stealing her work, but because she hadn't marked the Prince 362 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,000 Speaker 1: with the date of their first printing, which was required 363 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:59,960 Speaker 1: under the law, she was not awarded monetary penalties the injunction, 364 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,680 Speaker 1: and also didn't fully put an end to the infringement. 365 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:06,679 Speaker 1: There are things like advertisements and printed warnings from after 366 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:11,760 Speaker 1: this point about fraudulent editions of the herbal. If Alexander 367 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,800 Speaker 1: Blackwell did go to Debtor's prison, he was out by 368 00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:18,480 Speaker 1: seventeen forty, and in seventeen forty one he published a 369 00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:22,399 Speaker 1: book on agriculture called A New Method of Improving cold 370 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:27,399 Speaker 1: wet and barren lands, particularly clayey grounds, with the manner 371 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:31,760 Speaker 1: of burning clay turf and molehills, as practiced in North Britain, 372 00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:34,800 Speaker 1: to which is added the method of cultivating and raising 373 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:40,119 Speaker 1: fruit trees in such soils. Did Alexander Blackwell have the 374 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:44,400 Speaker 1: knowledge and expertise that would allow him to write an 375 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,880 Speaker 1: accurate book on this subject unclear, but he did get 376 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,320 Speaker 1: a job working for James Bridges, Duke of Chandos, as 377 00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:57,080 Speaker 1: director of improvements on the Duke's land. After that, things 378 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,520 Speaker 1: get murky for Alexander, and a lot of the writing 379 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:06,000 Speaker 1: about what happened next is vague or contradictory, or both. Apparently, 380 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,720 Speaker 1: on the recommendation of the Swedish ambassador in London, he 381 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,200 Speaker 1: went to Sweden, where he got a job at court. 382 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,879 Speaker 1: This most likely happened while Elizabeth was pregnant with their son, 383 00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:21,399 Speaker 1: also named Alexander, who was born in seventeen forty two. 384 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,359 Speaker 1: The elder Alexander seems to have worked as both a 385 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:29,440 Speaker 1: court physician and on agricultural improvements, and in seventeen forty 386 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:34,480 Speaker 1: five he published an essay on the improvement of Swedish agriculture. 387 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,840 Speaker 1: It appears that Elizabeth was preparing to join her husband 388 00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:42,199 Speaker 1: in Sweden in seventeen forty seven, and she sold the 389 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:46,520 Speaker 1: remaining rights to her herbal to bookseller John Norse. The 390 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,719 Speaker 1: Blackwells had sold partial rights to Norse over the years, 391 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:53,320 Speaker 1: and this final sale of the remaining rights also included 392 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:57,919 Speaker 1: unsold books and the printing plates. This cleared some debts 393 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,719 Speaker 1: that Elizabeth had accrued that were connected to the printing 394 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:04,360 Speaker 1: of the finished book, as well as other debts of Alexander's. 395 00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:09,240 Speaker 1: But then, on July twenty ninth, seventeen forty seven, probably 396 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:14,520 Speaker 1: before Elizabeth would have embarked on this journey, Alexander was beheaded. 397 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:18,239 Speaker 1: According to a pamphlet that was published about this that 398 00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:22,160 Speaker 1: same year, he was suspected of quote being employed as 399 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:27,400 Speaker 1: an agent for some courts abroad. Swedish biologist Carl Naus 400 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:33,360 Speaker 1: reportedly called Alexander Blackwell a self assertive ignoramus, and also 401 00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:36,640 Speaker 1: claimed that Alexander Blackwell had tried to bribe the king 402 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:41,400 Speaker 1: to appoint an English counselor. Linnaeus also claimed that Alexander 403 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,199 Speaker 1: had been having an affair with a married woman and 404 00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 1: had supplied that woman with poison in order to kill 405 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:52,879 Speaker 1: her husband with it. Some of this also seems to 406 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:56,840 Speaker 1: have been connected to court intrigue and a dispute over 407 00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:00,720 Speaker 1: the Swedish line of succession, all of which could have 408 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,240 Speaker 1: been an entire other subject, but I did not get 409 00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:08,000 Speaker 1: into it because it seemed very complicated, especially since this 410 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:13,159 Speaker 1: episode is not about Alexander, and some accounts frame Alexander 411 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,000 Speaker 1: is kind of hapless, while others make it sound more 412 00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:18,479 Speaker 1: like he was basically a con artist who was always 413 00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,520 Speaker 1: getting into some kind of shady scheme. That seventeen forty 414 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:25,040 Speaker 1: seven pamphlets said that when he went to his execution, 415 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:28,200 Speaker 1: he knelt down on the wrong side of the block. 416 00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,119 Speaker 1: When the executioner said that he needed to go to 417 00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:35,040 Speaker 1: the other side, he replied without emotion that quote. As 418 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:37,879 Speaker 1: it was the first experiment he ever made in that way, 419 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,040 Speaker 1: it was not to be wondered that he should need 420 00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:44,920 Speaker 1: a little instruction. In her brief biography of Elizabeth Blackwell, 421 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:48,919 Speaker 1: Lydia Maria Child wrote quote, this ill fated man seemed 422 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:53,520 Speaker 1: predestined to be unfortunate in all things save his affectionate 423 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:57,800 Speaker 1: and excellent wife. He formed various schemes, in all of 424 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:02,639 Speaker 1: which he was successively disappointed. James Bruce, author of the 425 00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,880 Speaker 1: eighteen forty one Lives of Eminent Men of Aberdeen, wrote quote, 426 00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:10,720 Speaker 1: his life was checkered by terms of prosperity and misfortune. 427 00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:14,200 Speaker 1: He might have been considered ill fated if that man 428 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:17,080 Speaker 1: could be called unhappy, that had such a woman to 429 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:21,520 Speaker 1: his wife. We know very little about what happened to 430 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:26,240 Speaker 1: Elizabeth in the years after her husband's execution. According to 431 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:29,720 Speaker 1: some accounts, she had trained as a midwife before embarking 432 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:31,960 Speaker 1: on her erbil, and she may have gone back to 433 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:36,000 Speaker 1: that profession. She died in London in seventeen fifty eight 434 00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:38,440 Speaker 1: at the age of fifty nine, and was buried in 435 00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:42,760 Speaker 1: the churchyard of the Chelsea Old Church. Her Irbel continued 436 00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 1: to be printed and sold in the years after her death, 437 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:47,680 Speaker 1: and was popular at least to the start of the 438 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:52,560 Speaker 1: nineteenth century. A German language version was published in Nuremberg 439 00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:57,000 Speaker 1: by Christophe True between seventeen fifty seven and seventeen seventy three. 440 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:03,200 Speaker 1: Many many prominentce meges, scientists, physicians, and other scholars had 441 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:07,680 Speaker 1: copies of the Curious Irbel in their collections, including Carlinaeus 442 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:12,560 Speaker 1: and Sir Joseph Banks. Linnaeus reportedly gave Blackwell the nickname 443 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:18,160 Speaker 1: Botanica Blackwellia. Elizabeth Blackwell is the only woman to be 444 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:22,000 Speaker 1: included in James Bruce's Lives of Eminent Men of Aberdeen. 445 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 1: He said of her herbal quote, a man of generous 446 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:28,800 Speaker 1: mind will feel more pleasure in turning over these two 447 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:32,960 Speaker 1: large folios, with their hundreds of plates each one of 448 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:37,600 Speaker 1: them bearing the inscription Elizabeth Blackwell, Delineavitt sculpts it at 449 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:41,080 Speaker 1: pinksit than he would in handling an earring of Cleopatra 450 00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 1: or even a lock of Helen of Troy's hair. That 451 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:50,000 Speaker 1: very glowing sentence immediately follows a very long paragraph about 452 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:53,360 Speaker 1: how he thought that women should not write books, which 453 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,240 Speaker 1: we will talk about on Friday. In her eighteen forty 454 00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 1: six book Biographies of Good Wives, past podcast subject Lydia 455 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:06,600 Speaker 1: Maria Child quoted physician and botanist Richard Pulteney as saying 456 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:09,480 Speaker 1: of this book quote for the most complete set of 457 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:13,120 Speaker 1: drawings of medicinal plants, we are indebted to the genius 458 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,800 Speaker 1: and industry of a lady exerted on an occasion that 459 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:21,080 Speaker 1: redounded highly on her praise. And that is the other 460 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,480 Speaker 1: Elizabeth Blackwell than the one who's probably more famous today 461 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,520 Speaker 1: in the United States. At least, do you have famous 462 00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:31,440 Speaker 1: listener mail? I do I have listener mail. So this 463 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,480 Speaker 1: listener mail follows a conversation that Holly and I had 464 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:39,520 Speaker 1: about our trip to Morocco and falling asleep on the bus. 465 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:46,320 Speaker 1: And I was just involuntarily asleep when we were on 466 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:50,080 Speaker 1: that bus, and Holly was chagrined at how many people 467 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:52,760 Speaker 1: were sleeping because we were missing a lot of cool stuff, 468 00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:57,600 Speaker 1: beautiful things. So Moe wrote and said, after sort of 469 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:01,280 Speaker 1: setting the context, I laughed. So when Tracy talked about 470 00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:03,120 Speaker 1: how she wanted people to be awake on the bus 471 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,520 Speaker 1: when we honeymooned in Ireland, we took the bus a lot, 472 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: and girl, those buses knocked me out. No matter how 473 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:13,920 Speaker 1: much sleep I had the night before or wanted to 474 00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:17,920 Speaker 1: be awake, I crashed. My dear husband just laughed and 475 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,800 Speaker 1: told me about what I missed on the drive seals 476 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:25,360 Speaker 1: so many ancient buildings, great countryside. We still giggle about 477 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:27,640 Speaker 1: it and we try to avoid buses when we travel. 478 00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:31,440 Speaker 1: No pets, but for pet tax. Here is my sister's 479 00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:35,640 Speaker 1: three legged kitty Ace and my friend's frenchy Carl trying 480 00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:38,479 Speaker 1: to stow away in her luggage. Thanks for all you do. 481 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:40,680 Speaker 1: I absolutely love the show and I'm so behind because 482 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:42,680 Speaker 1: I love to binge it. Keep up the good work, 483 00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:45,200 Speaker 1: Morocco sounded amazing. I hoped to take one of these 484 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:49,000 Speaker 1: trips with you guys, somedate. Mo So first, this email 485 00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:50,880 Speaker 1: was so funny to me, and I can't remember if 486 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,200 Speaker 1: I've already said it on the show, but Patrick and 487 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:55,760 Speaker 1: I also took a bus day trip when we were 488 00:31:55,760 --> 00:32:01,000 Speaker 1: in England and the boas I again was involuntarily asleep. 489 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:04,880 Speaker 1: And in this case, I think it was a combination 490 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:07,280 Speaker 1: of two things. One it was that it was very warm, 491 00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:10,360 Speaker 1: even with the air conditioning cranked. We were there during 492 00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:14,960 Speaker 1: the hottest May in England in the past one hundred years, 493 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:19,720 Speaker 1: rough summer already there having a really hard heat wave 494 00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:22,640 Speaker 1: summer currently, not just in the UK but in other 495 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:27,520 Speaker 1: parts of Europe. So even with the air conditioning fully 496 00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:30,200 Speaker 1: on full blast, it was very warm on the bus. 497 00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:34,000 Speaker 1: And then I also have a little co two monitor 498 00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:37,120 Speaker 1: in my backpack from back in the days of uh 499 00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:42,720 Speaker 1: like returning to travel after COVID started. That is just 500 00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:46,800 Speaker 1: sort of my little warning of hey, that the ventilation 501 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:48,720 Speaker 1: in this space that you're in is terrible, and it 502 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:53,200 Speaker 1: just lives inside my backpack. And according to that little 503 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:57,120 Speaker 1: COEO two monitor, the ventilation also on the bus was terrible. 504 00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:00,160 Speaker 1: So we were just there was not enough oxygen and 505 00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:03,360 Speaker 1: it was just walking and so yeah, and so every 506 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,040 Speaker 1: time we got on the bus, I fell asleep and 507 00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:08,000 Speaker 1: I did not want to be asleep. I wanted to 508 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:10,520 Speaker 1: see the drive out to Stonehenge. I wanted to see 509 00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:12,800 Speaker 1: the drive to Bath. I wanted to see the drive 510 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:16,400 Speaker 1: into the Cotswalls. I would say I have slept through 511 00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:20,760 Speaker 1: probably seventy percent of the bus travel time. So yeah, 512 00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:25,960 Speaker 1: I feel you, and you're ruined. You're ruined, Irish honeymoon. 513 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:29,840 Speaker 1: And then we also have beautiful cat pictures. Oh a 514 00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:34,240 Speaker 1: black kitty. I love them so much. And then yes, 515 00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: a little Frenchy on top of a suitcase trying to 516 00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:40,760 Speaker 1: stow away on a trip. Baby, So yes, thank you 517 00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:46,080 Speaker 1: so much. Mo. If anybody has tips about staying awake 518 00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:50,360 Speaker 1: on buses, I honestly I would appreciate them, as long 519 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:52,720 Speaker 1: as the tips are not take a bunch of stimulants, 520 00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:54,640 Speaker 1: because that's not going to help me have a good 521 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:58,920 Speaker 1: time on the bus. Yeah, because you can't chug coffee 522 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:01,320 Speaker 1: the way I can. Is that not anymore than it 523 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:04,240 Speaker 1: will be awake all night and then that will compound 524 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,840 Speaker 1: the problem more following day on the bus. No, no, 525 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:09,719 Speaker 1: you keep it going. You got to keep us in 526 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:14,520 Speaker 1: this journey. So yeah, if you would like to send 527 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,400 Speaker 1: us a note where a history podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com. 528 00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:20,880 Speaker 1: If you would like to see the show notes to 529 00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,600 Speaker 1: our episode with all of the various sources that we use, 530 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,360 Speaker 1: that's at our website, which is missed in hisstory dot com. 531 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:29,560 Speaker 1: And you can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio 532 00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:33,720 Speaker 1: app or anywhere else you'd like to get your podcasts. 533 00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:40,640 Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 534 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:45,600 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 535 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:47,760 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.