The Scientific Vision of Women

Students in their early twenties are not usually known to publish a book in the natural sciences. Especially, not a book that would introduce a generation of geology students and laypeople to the subject of mineralogy and crystallography. A book that would make it through three editions and have one reviewer exclaim that “few works are better calculated to excite in young persons, a love for a science.” Yet this is exactly the kind of book that Delvalle Eliza Rebekah Lowry published in 1822 London. The book was Conversations on Mineralogy, and she was 22.

Delvalle’s father, Wilson Lowry (1762-1824), was a high-quality engraver, and her mother Rebekah Lowry (1761–1848), a mineralogist and mathematician; both nurtured her artistic talents and inspired a love for the budding science of geology. Nineteenth century sensibilities about the appropriate behavior of women severely limited her ability to collect in the field, so she learned her minerals at the dinner table and by visiting local collectors. Her book is a scripted narrative between two female students and their instructor Mrs. L., a not-so-hidden tribute to her mother, who was known for her much-sought-after, at-home lessons on mineralogy. The book includes several engravings of mineral structures and shapes, and various instruments, all attributed to both herself and her father.

The highlight is an exceptional color plate of twelve mineral specimens shown here. Today’s popular guides to minerals entice their audience with artistically lit photographs of remarkable specimens. But the geologist knows that shape, form, and growth habit are much more important to the identification of a mineral than its bright colors or dazzling display. Lowry’s detailed renditions reveal the mind of an expert, focusing on the specimens’ essential qualities. Lowry would publish two more technical treatises of mineralogy before she passed away in 1859. The times made it impossible for her to teach at the very institutions where her works inspired and educated countless (mostly male) geology and engineering students.

Label by Alex Glass