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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

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Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly

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Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Mary Somerville was dubbed

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Speaker 1: the Queen of Science in her obituary in The Morning

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Speaker 1: Post in eighteen seventy two, and she had earned that

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Speaker 1: title through a lifetime of learning all that she could

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Speaker 1: about various math and science subjects, which was a lot,

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Speaker 1: and then parsing those concepts out in her writing for

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Speaker 1: more general audiences as well as scholars. And she completely

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Speaker 1: fascinates me because she's one of those topics that touches

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Speaker 1: so many others that we have talked about on the show.

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Speaker 1: It is a little surprising she isn't a more well

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Speaker 1: known historical figure or that she hasn't been mentioned on

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Speaker 1: our show over and over. Like I literally had a

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Speaker 1: moment doing Researcher. I was like, am I being punks?

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Speaker 1: Is this all April fool stuff? This isn't a real person,

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Speaker 1: because how could she have been as involved with all

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Speaker 1: of these luminaries and not be more prominent in the

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Speaker 1: historical discussion of math and science. I had more of

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Speaker 1: a repeatedly second guessing, like, did we do that? Did

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Speaker 1: we do it? I did that? Also? Yeah? Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: I really really like her, And while her life certainly

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Speaker 1: had its sorrows, her story is overall not a bummer

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Speaker 1: in my opinion. So it seemed like a good antidote

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Speaker 1: to some of the darker stuff that I have been

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Speaker 1: pursuing as of late. If our Halloween show really bummed

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Speaker 1: you out, is a good off ramp from that, you're

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Speaker 1: gonna have a much better time. So. She was born

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Speaker 1: Mary Fairfax on December twenty sixth, seventeen eighty in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland.

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Speaker 1: She was the daughter of Admiral Sir William George Fairfax

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Speaker 1: and Mary Chamber Fairfax, and was one of seven children.

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Speaker 1: Four of those children lived to adulthood. Because of my

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Speaker 1: father was away at sea a lot, her mother really

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Speaker 1: ran the household and as a little girl, Mary was

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Speaker 1: taught to read by her mother, but like a lot

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Speaker 1: of girls at the time, she didn't receive formal education.

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Speaker 1: As a small child, she was lonely and interested in

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Speaker 1: the outdoors from an early age, and she later recounted quote,

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Speaker 1: I never cared for dolls and had no one to

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Speaker 1: play with me. I amused myself in the garden, which

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Speaker 1: was much frequented by birds. I knew most of them,

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Speaker 1: their flight and their habits. I love this, It's so charming.

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Speaker 1: Mary went to a boarding school for a year when

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Speaker 1: she was ten, and this year of education was largely

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Speaker 1: due to her father having returned from time at sea

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Speaker 1: to find her without much basic knowledge. It seems like

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Speaker 1: he felt her mom had fallen down on the job

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Speaker 1: of her home education a little bit. Fairfax said of

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Speaker 1: his daughter, quote, this kind of life will never do.

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Speaker 1: Mary must at least know how to write and keep accounts.

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Speaker 1: When her year at school, which she hated, was completed,

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Speaker 1: and by completed it seems like she might have been

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Speaker 1: invited to leave, she set out on a journey of

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Speaker 1: self education, devouring whatever books she could get her hands on.

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Speaker 1: But some of this, she would later write, was out

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Speaker 1: of shame, because when she returned home she realized that

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Speaker 1: she was still unable to write well enough to answer

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Speaker 1: even simple notes sent by neighbors, and at one point

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Speaker 1: she had sent her brother a letter with misspellings that

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Speaker 1: got her chastised for wasting her parents' money for that

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Speaker 1: time in schooling that apparently achieved nothing, and she wrote

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Speaker 1: of this event quote, this passed over, and I was

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Speaker 1: like a wild animal escaped out of a cage. She

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Speaker 1: was interested in everything around her. She had just not

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Speaker 1: done well in the structured school setting. Her uncle, Reverend

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Speaker 1: Thomas Somerville, who was one of the few adults to

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Speaker 1: understand her simultaneous disdain for formal schooling and her deep

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Speaker 1: desire for knowledge, helped her by teaching her Latin. In

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Speaker 1: the winter that Mary turned thirteen, her mother took an

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Speaker 1: apartment in Edinburgh. Her father was once again away, and

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Speaker 1: she sent Mary to a writing school to improve her

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Speaker 1: handwriting and also to learn some basic math. She later

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Speaker 1: took Pianoforte lessons, and she went to dancing school, and

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Speaker 1: she also took up painting. Mary's curiosity about higher math

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Speaker 1: was sparked in a pretty unusual way. She told this

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Speaker 1: story later in her life. This way quote, I was

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Speaker 1: often invited with my mother to the tea parties given

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Speaker 1: either by widows or maiden ladies who resided at Burnt Island.

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Speaker 1: A pool of commerce used to be keenly contested till

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Speaker 1: a late hour at these parties, which bored me exceedingly,

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Speaker 1: But I there became acquainted with a missus Ogilvy, much

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Speaker 1: younger than the rest, who asked me to go and

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Speaker 1: see fancy works she was doing, and at which she

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Speaker 1: was very clever. I went the next day, and after

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Speaker 1: admiring her work and being told how it was done,

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Speaker 1: she showed me a monthly Mas magazine with colored plates

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Speaker 1: of ladies' dresses, charades, and puzzles. At the end of

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Speaker 1: a page, I read what appeared to me to be

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Speaker 1: simply an arithmetical question, But on turning the page, I

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Speaker 1: was surprised to see strange looking lines mixed with letters,

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Speaker 1: chiefly x'es and y's, and asked, what is that? Oh,

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Speaker 1: said miss Ogilvie. It is a kind of arithmetic. They

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Speaker 1: call it algebra. But I can tell you nothing about it.

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Speaker 1: And we talked about other things, But on going home,

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Speaker 1: I thought I would look if any of our books

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Speaker 1: can tell me what was meant by algebra. So while

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Speaker 1: she struggled initially to find books that would answer her

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Speaker 1: questions or find anybody who would explain this to her,

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Speaker 1: this really set Mary down a path of just self

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Speaker 1: propelled academic rigor, as she kept trying to take in

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Speaker 1: every bit of information she could find to achieve understanding.

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Speaker 1: When Mary was twenty four, she married a distant cousin,

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Speaker 1: Samuel Gregg. Samuel didn't exactly hamper Mary's efforts at learning,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't support them either. She wrote later that quote,

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Speaker 1: he had a very low opinion of the capacity of

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Speaker 1: my sex. So it seems like Samuel just thought of

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Speaker 1: her efforts at constantly learning as kind of a quaint hobby.

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Speaker 1: In general, this marriage did not seem to be a

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Speaker 1: particularly joyous union. Samuel had just a small bachelor home

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Speaker 1: in London, which Mary did not like, and they didn't

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Speaker 1: have much in common, so she spent a lot of

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Speaker 1: her days walking alone and studying mathematics. The one thing

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Speaker 1: that she said she loved about her new life in

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Speaker 1: London was seeing the Italian opera for the first time.

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Speaker 1: Samuel and Mary had two children together, but their marriage

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Speaker 1: was brief, and there's also a bit of a gap

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Speaker 1: in information about their second child. Their first son, Varnsov Greeg,

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Speaker 1: grew up to be a barrister, but their second son

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Speaker 1: died in childhood, and it was really hard for Holly

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Speaker 1: to find anything about him, even his name. Samuel died

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Speaker 1: in eighteen oh seven, which meant Mary was a twenty

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Speaker 1: seven year old widow and mother. The second son was

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Speaker 1: still alive at that point, and her own account indicated

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Speaker 1: that she moved with her two children back into her

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Speaker 1: father's home and was nursing her youngest. During her time

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Speaker 1: back in Scotland, she started studying, according to her account,

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Speaker 1: spherical trigonometry, conic sections, and Newton's Principia. She struggled with Principia,

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Speaker 1: of which she wrote, quote, I found it extremely difficult

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Speaker 1: and certainly did not understand it till I returned to

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Speaker 1: it sometime after when I studied that wonderful work with

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Speaker 1: great assiduity and wrote numerous notes and observations on it.

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Speaker 1: For the next five years, Mary's study focused primarily on mathematics.

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Speaker 1: She described getting a list of mathematics books from a

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Speaker 1: professor at the University of Edinburgh to make herself a

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Speaker 1: comprehensive course on the subject, and bought everyone, which she

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Speaker 1: referred to as an excellent little library. Her writing about

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Speaker 1: this acquisition and the way her days played out as

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Speaker 1: she studied it, reveals a lot about her personality. Quote

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Speaker 1: I could hardly believe that I possessed such a treasure.

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Speaker 1: When I looked back on the day that I first

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Speaker 1: saw the mysterious word algebra, and the long course of

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Speaker 1: years in which I had persevered almost without hope, it

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Speaker 1: taught me never to despair. I had now the means

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Speaker 1: and pursued my studies with increased assiduity. Concealment was no

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Speaker 1: longer possible, nor was it attempted. I was considered eccentric

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Speaker 1: and foolish, and my conduct was highly disapproved of by many,

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Speaker 1: especially by some members of my own family. They expected

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Speaker 1: me to entertain and keep a gay house for them,

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Speaker 1: and in that they were disappointed. As I was quite independent.

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Speaker 1: I did not care for their criticism. A great part

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Speaker 1: of the day I was occupied with my children. In

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Speaker 1: the evening, I worked, played piquet with my father, or

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Speaker 1: played on the piano, sometimes with violent accompaniment. This work

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Speaker 1: in mathematics paid off. In eighteen eleven, Mary submitted a

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Speaker 1: solution to a published problem in the journal The Mathematical

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Speaker 1: Repository and won a second place medal for her solution.

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Speaker 1: Mary remarried in eighteen twelve, this time to William Somerville,

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Speaker 1: who was another cousin, and the son of her uncle,

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Speaker 1: Reverend Thomas Somerville, to whom she had been close all

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Speaker 1: her life. She was actually born in Thomas Somerville's house.

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Speaker 1: William worked for the Army's medical department, and unlike her

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Speaker 1: first husband, he was very supportive of her and her studies.

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Speaker 1: William and Mary's daughter Martha later wrote of her father quote,

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Speaker 1: his love and admiration for her were unbounded. He frankly

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Speaker 1: and willingly acknowledged her superiority to himself, and many of

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Speaker 1: our friends can bear witness to the honest pride and

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Speaker 1: gratification which he always testified in the fame and honors

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Speaker 1: she attained. While Mary's husband and her father in law

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Speaker 1: were very in favor of her intellectual pres suits, that

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Speaker 1: wasn't true of the entire Somerville family, and this really

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Speaker 1: led particularly to some harsh letters back and forth between

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Speaker 1: William and his sisters. They would say Mary was doing

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Speaker 1: things she should not, and William was basically like, shut

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Speaker 1: up in mind your business. Family squabbles aside, the Summerville

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Speaker 1: seemed to have been a very good match for one another,

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Speaker 1: and we will talk more about their life together and

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Speaker 1: Mary's first forays into scientific publishing after we pause for

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Speaker 1: a sponsor break. In eighteen sixteen, Mary and William moved

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Speaker 1: to London for William's work. The couple already had two

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Speaker 1: daughters when they moved. Margaret was born in eighteen thirteen,

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Speaker 1: so the year after they got married, and Martha was born.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen fifteen. In London, their third daughter, Mary Charlotte,

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Speaker 1: was born. The couple did have one other child, a son,

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Speaker 1: who died as a baby. During their time in London,

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Speaker 1: they met a lot of notable intellectuals of the time.

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Speaker 1: William was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and

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Speaker 1: he brought Mary with him to lectures, and there they

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Speaker 1: met Charles Babbage and John Herschel, among others. Mary also

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Speaker 1: became Ada Byron's private tutor when Ada was young, and

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Speaker 1: they became good friends as she grew up. And it

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Speaker 1: was actually through the Summervilles that Ada met Charles Babbage

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Speaker 1: when she was eighteen. The Summerville's daughter, Margaret, died in

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Speaker 1: eighteen twenty three at the age of ten. Mary wrote

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Speaker 1: of this moment late in her life, quote, the illness

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Speaker 1: and death of our eldest threw Somerville and me into

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Speaker 1: the deepest affliction. She was a child of intelligence and

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Speaker 1: acquirements far beyond her tender age. Soon after, William was

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Speaker 1: given a position at Chelsea Hospital and the family moved

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Speaker 1: to Chelsea to be close to his work. This was

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Speaker 1: really when their close relationship with Lady Byron and her

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Speaker 1: daughter Ada began. And from the time she was a child,

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Speaker 1: Ada was close with Mary and would often stay at

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Speaker 1: the Summerville home. Yeah. Mary almost seems like I don't

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Speaker 1: know if I would say a second mother, but probably

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Speaker 1: pretty close. Like Ada would just spend like the week

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Speaker 1: at their house because she loved it there so much.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen twenty six, Mary's first paper was read at

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Speaker 1: the Royal Society That was on the magnetizing power of

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Speaker 1: the more refrangible solar rays, so you know, very light stuff.

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Speaker 1: In it, she described her own experiments that she had

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Speaker 1: conducted in magnetism, writing quote. In the year eighteen thirteen,

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Speaker 1: Professor Morrichini of Rome announced that steel exposed in a

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Speaker 1: particular manner to the concentrated violet rays of the prismatic

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Speaker 1: spectrum becomes magnetic. His experiments, however, having uniformly failed in

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Speaker 1: other hands, had ceased to excite general attention, especially in

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Speaker 1: this country, whose climate is usually so unfavorable for such researches.

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Speaker 1: The unusual clearness of weather last summer, however, induced Missus

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Speaker 1: Somerville to make the attempt, Having at that time no

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Speaker 1: information of the manner in which Professor Morrikini's experiments were conducted.

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Speaker 1: It occurred to her, however, as unlikely that if the

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Speaker 1: whole of a needle were equally exposed to the violet rays,

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Speaker 1: the same influence should at the same time produce a

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Speaker 1: south pole at one end and a north at the

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Speaker 1: other of it. She therefore covered half of a slender

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Speaker 1: sewing needle an inch long with paper and fixed it

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Speaker 1: in such a manner as to expose the uncovered part

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Speaker 1: to the violet rays of a spectrum thrown by an

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Speaker 1: equi angular prism of flint glass on a panel at

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Speaker 1: five feet distance. As the place of the spectrum shifted,

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Speaker 1: the needle was moved so as to keep the exposed

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Speaker 1: part constantly in the violet ray, the sun being bright.

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Speaker 1: In less than two hours, the needle, which before the

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Speaker 1: experiment showed no signs of polarity, had become magnetic, the

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Speaker 1: exposed end attracting the south pole of a suspended magnetic

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Speaker 1: needle and repelling the north. No iron was near to

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Speaker 1: disturb the experiment, which was repeated did the same day

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Speaker 1: under similar circumstances, with a view to detect any source

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Speaker 1: of fallacy in the first attempt, but with the same result.

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Speaker 1: Just as in Aside, she does write about herself in

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Speaker 1: the third person here, but this is her paper. That's

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Speaker 1: that It happens a lot in this era. I feel

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Speaker 1: like The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was

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Speaker 1: founded the same year Mary's paper, published by Henry Brahm.

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Speaker 1: The goal of the society was to make information available

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Speaker 1: and understandable to the masses, and Mary was asked to help.

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Speaker 1: Bram wanted her to create a condensed English language version

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Speaker 1: of Pierre Simol Laplace's work on the Solar system celestial mechanics.

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Speaker 1: Mary took on this challenging job, but at first she

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Speaker 1: was reluctant. Her account of the request when, as follows quote,

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Speaker 1: I thought Lord Bram must have been mistaken with regard

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Speaker 1: to my acquirements, and naturally concluded that my self acquired

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Speaker 1: knowledge was so far inferior to that of the men

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Speaker 1: who had been educated in our universities that it would

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Speaker 1: be the height of presumption to attempt to write on

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Speaker 1: such a subject, or indeed on any other. A few

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Speaker 1: days after this, Lord Brahm came to Chelsea himself, and

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Speaker 1: Somerville joined with him in urging me at least to

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Speaker 1: make the attempt. It took Mary four years to complete

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Speaker 1: this adaptation. Unfortunately, her version wasn't condensed enough for Brom

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Speaker 1: He still thought it was just a too much book

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Speaker 1: for a mass market publication. But Mary's version, titled Mechanism

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Speaker 1: of the Heavens, was recognized by her scientific peers for

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Speaker 1: its value, and William Herschel's son, Sir John Herschel, helped

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Speaker 1: this book to find a home with another publisher, and

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Speaker 1: it was published in eighteen thirty one. The introduction to

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Speaker 1: the book was published a year later. That was really

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Speaker 1: a paper that could stand on its own, but it

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Speaker 1: offered a survey of the knowledge of astronomy that had

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Speaker 1: been achieved up to that point to contextualize the information

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Speaker 1: of the larger work. The book was praised pretty universally

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Speaker 1: by members of the scientific community, and poly math William

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Speaker 1: Wowell was so impressed that, in addition to a letter

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Speaker 1: of praise. He sent Mary a sonnet that he wrote

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Speaker 1: in her honor, which concluded with this stanza that dark

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Speaker 1: to you seems bright, perplexed, seems plain seen in the

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Speaker 1: depths of a pellucid mind, full of clear thought, pure

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Speaker 1: from the ill and vain that cloud the inward light.

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Speaker 1: An honored name be yours, and peace of heart. Grow

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Speaker 1: with your growing fame. Mary Somerville's next book would become

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Speaker 1: something of a lifelong project. The original edition, titled The

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Speaker 1: Connection of the Physical Sciences, was released in eighteen thirty four,

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Speaker 1: but nine more editions were released after that, all of

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Speaker 1: them edited and updated by Mary. This book, like Mechanism

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Speaker 1: of the Heavens, was intended to make scientific concepts accessible

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Speaker 1: and relatable, and it was a significantly ambitious job because

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Speaker 1: she was, as the title indicated, connecting multiple fields and

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Speaker 1: showing how they interacted and affected one another. So physics, astronomy, meteorology,

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Speaker 1: and geography were all included. In recognition of all of

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Speaker 1: this work, Mary was put on the civil List in

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five, so The Civilist has its own interesting history,

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Speaker 1: but was established as the list of expenses required to

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Speaker 1: support the monarch and their family, and this came to

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Speaker 1: include things like giving pensions to people doing work that

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Speaker 1: benefited or advanced Britain, and through that Mary Somerville was

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Speaker 1: granted a yearly pension of two hundred pounds thanks to

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Speaker 1: her nomination by Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. Two years later,

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Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty seven, Prime Minister Melbourne increased that number

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Speaker 1: to three hundred pounds annually. In eighteen thirty five, Mary

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Speaker 1: was also made an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical

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Speaker 1: Society along with Caroline Herschel, making them the first two

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Speaker 1: women who were included in the organization. The society also

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Speaker 1: commissioned a bust of Somerville. She wrote of the honor quote,

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Speaker 1: I was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical

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Speaker 1: Society at the same time as Miss Caroline Herschel. To

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Speaker 1: be associated with so distinguished an astronomer was in itself

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Speaker 1: an honor. After her election to the Royal Society of London,

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Speaker 1: other similar societies followed suit, including the Royal Academy at

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Speaker 1: Dublin and Society Defusique a distoirs Naturelle of Geneva, another

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Speaker 1: accolade bestowed on her at this time was the naming

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Speaker 1: of a ship built in Liverpool in her honor. A

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Speaker 1: copy of the Royal Society bust was also used for

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Speaker 1: the figurehead of that ship, but the Mary Somerville sadly

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Speaker 1: sailed only once before being lost at sea. When she

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Speaker 1: writes about it, she's so sort of cavalier. It's like, well,

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Speaker 1: I don't know where that ship is. Perhaps the most

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Speaker 1: significant result of connection of the physical sciences was the

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Speaker 1: discovery of the planet Neptune. Mary did not discover the

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Speaker 1: planet herself, but she suggested its existence when she noted

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Speaker 1: that there was this sort of tricky issue with making

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Speaker 1: the math work when it came to the position of Uranus,

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00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,320
Speaker 1: like something wasn't working out. There was something else involved, potentially,

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Speaker 1: and that was one of the new pieces of writing

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Speaker 1: that she included in the eighteen thirty six edition of

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Speaker 1: the book, which was its third. John Couch Adams was

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Speaker 1: intrigued by this problem and started to work out the math,

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Speaker 1: and then he was credited as one of the astronomers

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Speaker 1: whose work led to the discovery of Neptune. He shared

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Speaker 1: that honor with Urbane Leverier, who also calculated the position

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Speaker 1: of a likely heavenly body and Johann Gottfried Gale, who

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Speaker 1: was the first to see the planet and identify it.

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Speaker 1: That happened in eighteen forty six. In eighteen thirty eight,

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Speaker 1: William's health was suffering and the decision was made to

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Speaker 1: move to Italy in the hopes that it would improve.

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Speaker 1: They settled in Rome, and while they traveled around the country,

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Speaker 1: they never left Italy. As soon as they were settled in,

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Speaker 1: Mary got back to a regular writing schedule, working from

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Speaker 1: early morning until two pm, and then strolling the city

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Speaker 1: to take in whatever architecture or gallery struck their fancy

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Speaker 1: until dinner time. They often had expatriates and colleagues stop

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Speaker 1: by in the evenings for social visits, and this all

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00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:26,800
Speaker 1: sounds like a pretty dreamy way to live. They spent

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Speaker 1: time at Bellaggio on Lake Como, which Mary described as

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Speaker 1: quote the most lonely village imaginable, which might sound like

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Speaker 1: a negative, but she also said that she quote liked

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Speaker 1: it exceedingly. They would have returned to England after Lake Como,

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Speaker 1: but William was once again six, so they decided not

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Speaker 1: to travel any farther than back to Florence, and there

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Speaker 1: Mary was given access to the private Library at Pitty Palace,

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Speaker 1: which was both an honor and a delight for her.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen forty four, Mary became an associate of the

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Speaker 1: College of Resurgenti in Rome and an honorary member of

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Speaker 1: the Imperial and Royal Academy of Science, Literature and Art

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Speaker 1: at Arezzo. Throughout all of these travels, while she was

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Speaker 1: working on the many updates to the connection of the

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00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:16,360
Speaker 1: physical sciences, Mary also wrote her next book, Physical Geography,

356
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Speaker 1: which was published in eighteen forty eight. Sir John Herschel

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Speaker 1: was once again a huge support for Mary while she

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Speaker 1: was working on Physical Geography, because she had been concerned

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00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,800
Speaker 1: that another book published before hers was too similar. That

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00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:34,440
Speaker 1: was the German language book Cosmos, written by Alexander von

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00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,840
Speaker 1: Humboldt and published in eighteen forty five. She recounted quote

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Speaker 1: when Cosmos appeared, I at once determined to put my

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00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:45,679
Speaker 1: manuscript in the fire, when Somerville said, do not be rash.

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00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:49,359
Speaker 1: Consult some of our friends Herschel, for instance. So I

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00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,320
Speaker 1: sent the manuscript to Sir John Herschel, who advised me

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00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 1: by all means to publish it. When Physical Geography was released,

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00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:59,959
Speaker 1: it was recognized as an important work which, like her

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00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:04,520
Speaker 1: other work, made matters of science accessible to readers. It

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00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:07,600
Speaker 1: was used as a textbook for decades after its publication.

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Speaker 1: The Christmas after that publication, the Summervilles and the Herschels

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Speaker 1: spent the holiday together in England, which also enabled the

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Speaker 1: Somervilles to visit with another friend, Michael Faraday. Mary wrote

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Speaker 1: of him quote, we had formed such a friendship with

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Speaker 1: mister Faraday that while we lived abroad, he sent me

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00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:28,280
Speaker 1: a copy of everything he published. And on returning to England,

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Speaker 1: we renewed our friendship with that illustrious philosopher and attended

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00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:36,720
Speaker 1: his lectures at the Royal Institution. He had already magnetized

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00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,480
Speaker 1: a ray of polarized light, but was still lecturing on

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00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:43,359
Speaker 1: the magnetic and diamagnetic properties of matter. At the last

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00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:46,960
Speaker 1: lecture we attended, he showed the diamagnetism of flame, which

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00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:51,200
Speaker 1: had been proved by a foreign philosopher. Mister Faraday never

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00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:54,040
Speaker 1: would accept any honor. He lived in a circle of

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Speaker 1: friends to whom he was deeply attached. When the Summervilles

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Speaker 1: tried to return to Italy in eighteen forty nine, the

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00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: First Italian War of Independence was under way, so they

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00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:07,240
Speaker 1: decided to pause in Munich until that conflict had died down.

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00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:10,720
Speaker 1: After the winter, they moved to Salzburg and they stayed

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Speaker 1: there many months. When the war ended in August of

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00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,920
Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine, the family traveled back to Italy, though

390
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:20,800
Speaker 1: Mary wrote of their constant state of travel with a

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00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:24,240
Speaker 1: sort of nonchalance. She noted of their stop in Piesheria

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Speaker 1: del guarda Italy quote, the devastation of the country was frightful.

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Speaker 1: Pasharia and its fortifications were in ruins. The villages around

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00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:36,560
Speaker 1: had been burnt down, and the wretched inhabitants were beginning

395
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Speaker 1: to repair their roofless houses. Italy's ongoing political conflicts at

396
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:43,960
Speaker 1: this time would once again be top of mind for

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00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,040
Speaker 1: the Summerville's in the coming years, but this time they

398
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:50,439
Speaker 1: remained in the country. We'll get into Mary's work for

399
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:52,640
Speaker 1: the war effort after we pause for a word from

400
00:23:52,640 --> 00:24:05,760
Speaker 1: our sponsors. When the Second War of Italian Independence began

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00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:08,919
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty nine, the Summervilles were living in Florence,

402
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 1: and they supported the Italians who wanted to unite the

403
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,280
Speaker 1: states of Italy under one flag and crown. In a

404
00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:18,439
Speaker 1: letter to her son, Vorensov, dated May twenty ninth, eighteen

405
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:22,160
Speaker 1: fifty nine, Mary wrote, quote, everything is perfectly quiet here.

406
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,919
Speaker 1: The Tuscans are giving money liberally for carrying on the war.

407
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:29,680
Speaker 1: We have bought quantities of old linen, and your sisters

408
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,439
Speaker 1: and I spend the day in making lint and bandages

409
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:36,080
Speaker 1: for the wounded soldiers. Great quantities have already been sent

410
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 1: to Piedmont. Hitherto the war has been favorable to the

411
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 1: Allied army. God grant that England may not enter into

412
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,440
Speaker 1: the contest till the Austrians are driven out of Italy.

413
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 1: After that point has been gained, our honor would be safe.

414
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 1: To take part with the oppressors and maintain despotism in

415
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:58,960
Speaker 1: Italy would be infamous. She continued to keep Vorensov updated

416
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 1: on things in Flora and throughout the conflict. There are

417
00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 1: many letters from her to him. When it came to

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00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:08,920
Speaker 1: what must have been a truly painful life event, Mary

419
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 1: wrote only in her memoirs quote, I lost my husband

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00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 1: in Florence on the twenty sixth June eighteen sixty. From

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00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:20,320
Speaker 1: the preceding narrative, maybe seeing the sympathy, affection and confidence

422
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 1: which always existed between us After William's death, Mary said

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00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 1: that her health needed a change, and she moved temporarily

424
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 1: to Laspezzia, Italy. She wanted to rewrite the Chemistry section

425
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: of Physical Sciences entirely during this time, but her daughters

426
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,159
Speaker 1: convinced her not to and to spend that time on

427
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:43,040
Speaker 1: some new projects to occupy her mind. Yeah, they were like,

428
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 1: you could do that, but it's fine, people love it.

429
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,520
Speaker 1: Why don't you do something new? I think they I mean,

430
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 1: this is my conjecture. I suspect they wanted her to

431
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 1: engage in completely new things just to keep her mind

432
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:58,120
Speaker 1: off of her sorrow at the time, and what captured

433
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:01,399
Speaker 1: her curiosity was the advances that have been made in

434
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 1: microscopes and how they had enabled humans to perceive the

435
00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:08,240
Speaker 1: world in a new way. Eight years later, in eighteen

436
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: sixty nine, Somerville published on Molecular and Microscopic Science. During

437
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:15,840
Speaker 1: the time that she spent writing it, she seemed to

438
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:18,119
Speaker 1: return to the style of living that she and William

439
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:22,520
Speaker 1: had enjoyed together traveling around Italy. This was not as

440
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 1: popular as her earlier works, but that same year the

441
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 1: Royal Geographic Society honored her with the Patron's Medal Mary

442
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:33,800
Speaker 1: died in Naples, Italy, on November twenty ninth, eighteen seventy two,

443
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: asleep in her bed. Her library was left in its

444
00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 1: entirety to the Ladies College at Girton, and she was

445
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 1: interred in the English Campisanto in Naples. When she died,

446
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 1: Mary was working on another book, which was her autobiography.

447
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 1: Mary's daughter Martha edited and annotated the work and it

448
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:56,399
Speaker 1: was published as Personal Recollections from Early Life to Old Age,

449
00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 1: and it came out the year after Mary's death. She

450
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,360
Speaker 1: had read the same year that her book on microscopic

451
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 1: science had come out. Quote. I have lately entered my

452
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:09,040
Speaker 1: eighty ninth year, grateful to God for the innumerable blessings

453
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:11,719
Speaker 1: he has bestowed on me and my children, at peace

454
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 1: with all on earth. And I trust that I may

455
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 1: be at peace with my Maker when my last hour comes,

456
00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 1: which cannot now be far distant. Although I have been

457
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:23,359
Speaker 1: tried by many severe afflictions, my life upon the whole

458
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,320
Speaker 1: has been happy. In my youth, I had to contend

459
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 1: with prejudice and illiberality. Yet I was of a quiet

460
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 1: temper and easy to live with, and I never interfered

461
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:35,679
Speaker 1: with or pride into other people's affairs. I never had

462
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 1: an enemy. I have never been of a melancholy disposition.

463
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: Though depressed sometimes by circumstances, I always rallied again. And

464
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 1: although I seldom laugh, I can laugh heartily at wit

465
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 1: or on fit occasion. The short time I have to

466
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 1: live naturally occupies my thoughts in the blessed hope of

467
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 1: meeting again with my beloved children and those who were

468
00:27:58,080 --> 00:27:59,919
Speaker 1: and are dear to me on earth. I think of

469
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:03,679
Speaker 1: death with composure and perfect confidence in the mercy of God.

470
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: Yet to me, who I am afraid to sleep alone

471
00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:10,160
Speaker 1: on a stormy night, or even to sleep comfortably any

472
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: night unless someone is near, It is a fearful thought

473
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 1: that my spirit must enter that new state of existence

474
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 1: quite alone. But even after this somewhat melancholy passage, she

475
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 1: also wrote of how excited she was to incorporate the

476
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 1: latest information about China, Japan, South Africa, and Australia into

477
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 1: physical geography. There also is we should note some pretty

478
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:39,800
Speaker 1: cringey pro colonization rhetoric involved in this. Her work was

479
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 1: always a place of solace, and even her final years,

480
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: she was actively engaged with not just her work but

481
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 1: also social causes. And in particular the effort to get

482
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 1: animal welfare laws passed in Italy. She notes in her memoir, however,

483
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: that as she turned ninety two, she was quote extremely

484
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 1: deaf and struggling to rem member things like people's names,

485
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 1: but noted that while her memory had dulled, it had

486
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 1: quote not for mathematical and scientific subjects. I am still

487
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: able to read books on the higher algebra for four

488
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: or five hours in the morning, and even to solve

489
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 1: the problems. Sometimes I find them difficult, but my old

490
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,720
Speaker 1: obstinacy remains, for if I do not succeed today, I

491
00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 1: attack them again on themorrow. I also enjoy reading about

492
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,360
Speaker 1: all the new discoveries and theories in the scientific world

493
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:35,600
Speaker 1: and on all branches of science. Like may my life

494
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 1: model on this. In eighteen seventy nine, Somerville College at

495
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:41,880
Speaker 1: Oxford was founded as a ladies college, and it was

496
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: named to honor Mary. This started out just as a

497
00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:47,720
Speaker 1: hall with limited access to lectures for the enrolled women,

498
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 1: but over time it has evolved into a co ed institution.

499
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: It's often pointed to as a place where a lot

500
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 1: of progressive ideas, particularly in terms of rights for women,

501
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:01,520
Speaker 1: have been champion and then battled out, and that is

502
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 1: still a college today. So there they all know her name,

503
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: and that is Mary Somerville, who I found quite refreshing

504
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:16,640
Speaker 1: after all of our kind of downer stuff we've been discussing. Yeah,

505
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 1: I love her. I really really liked her heap. She

506
00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 1: was so fun to write about and to research on

507
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 1: because her writing is really really excellent. There are times

508
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 1: when you read older manuscripts from people in like the

509
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 1: Victorian era, and it's also stilted that it's really hard

510
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: to like connect to, but her writing I see why

511
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:41,520
Speaker 1: she was a great science communicator because she was completely

512
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 1: able to like make it all very casual and make

513
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 1: sense and not so academic as to be stuffy. She's

514
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:51,400
Speaker 1: very good at it. And I have a really fun

515
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:55,920
Speaker 1: listener mail. This listener mail is from our listener Christopher,

516
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 1: who starts out Diritt from Dublin, which I probably said

517
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,080
Speaker 1: very poorly. I wanted to write in with a not

518
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 1: quite correction on your Jack a Lantern episode, which I

519
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 1: very much enjoyed. You mentioned several times the Irish tradition

520
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 1: of carving turnips into lanterns, which is true. However, turnip

521
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: in Ireland does not mean the same thing as it

522
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: does elsewhere. Most people know that England and America have

523
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:23,080
Speaker 1: different names for some vegetables, like the eggplant versus the aubergine.

524
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 1: One of these is what most Americans call a route bega.

525
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: In England it's called a swede, in Scotland it's called

526
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 1: a nap, and in Ireland it is called a turnip,

527
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:36,320
Speaker 1: what other people call turnups. The Irish mostly called white turnips.

528
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 1: I suspect that Irish historians use the word turnip in

529
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 1: writing about vegetable carving traditions, and others assumed they meant

530
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:47,240
Speaker 1: turnips as they understood them. So now most sources talk

531
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: about turnups without specifying whether they mean Anglo American turnips,

532
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:55,440
Speaker 1: the brassica rappa or Irish turnips brassica napus aka rutebega

533
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: or swede. So if you ever looked at the tiny

534
00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 1: turnups in an American or English shop and why anyone

535
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:03,320
Speaker 1: would bother carving one, the answer is that most of

536
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,959
Speaker 1: them were probably larger and more head shaped rude vegas.

537
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:12,040
Speaker 1: Thanks love the podcast, Chris. This is a wonderful context

538
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:14,440
Speaker 1: that I did not know at all. A me, it

539
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:16,880
Speaker 1: also makes sense, I mean in my head This may

540
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:20,000
Speaker 1: not be in any way connected because rude bigas are

541
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:23,560
Speaker 1: a little bit sweeter than turnips, So the transition to oh,

542
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 1: we could carve this other sweet squash once people had

543
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 1: come to America may have been a more natural transition. Yeah.

544
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: This also reminded me. It's not quite the same thing,

545
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:37,560
Speaker 1: but it reminded me a little bit of We were

546
00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 1: talking about like one of the very old cookbooks on

547
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 1: the show at one point, and there was some kind

548
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: of squash type vegetable, some kind of gourd maybe that

549
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:53,560
Speaker 1: had been translated really consistently as pumpkin, but there weren't

550
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:57,160
Speaker 1: pumpkins in Europe, right, and it was just one of

551
00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 1: those things that kind of picked up and proliferated, is

552
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 1: like pumpkin, even though that was a different thing. Yeah. Yeah. Also,

553
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 1: Christopher sent one of my favorite pictures of all time

554
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: in the Pet Tax, because it features his tortoiseshell cat

555
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:17,760
Speaker 1: Ginger and Ruby, who is a Devon Rex, which is

556
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 1: my favorite breed of cats. My beloved mister Burns was

557
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: the Devon Rex. Ruby has the devon Rex stare that

558
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:28,640
Speaker 1: looks very grumpy but is probably very cuddly and sweet.

559
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 1: This is your babies are beautiful, Christopher. I want to

560
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:35,520
Speaker 1: kiss them both if they would be into it. This

561
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 1: makes me so excited now I kind of want to

562
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 1: go get rudebiga in carb it. If you would like

563
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 1: to write to us, you can do so at History

564
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,120
Speaker 1: Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also find us

565
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:52,520
Speaker 1: on social media as Missed in History Listen. If you

566
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:55,800
Speaker 1: carve rudabagas or turn ups, you share those pictures over there.

567
00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 1: We want them, and you can also subscribe to the

568
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 1: podcast if you have already on the iHeartRadio app or

569
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:10,319
Speaker 1: anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. Stuff you Missed

570
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more

571
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:17,880
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

572
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:19,880
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,