THE CITIZEN SCIENTIST Jane Marcet

Jane Marcet wasn’t a chemist. She wasn’t a physicist or a biologist or an astronomer – but she probably made a bigger contribution to science than anyone else in the 19th century. So why do none of us know her name? Guest Miranda Garno Nesler explains what made Jane Marcet’s contributions so unique and so important, and why so many of us might be thinking about science – and scientists – all wrong.

Miranda Garno Nesler is Director of Women’s Literature & History for Whitmore Rare Books.

Image of Jane Marcet — Jane Marcet
image from Edgar Fahs Smith Collection, University of Pennsylvania

Illustration from Conversations on Chemistry by Jane Marcet — Illustration from Conversations on Chemistry

Title Page of Conversations on Chemistry by Jane Marcet — Title Page of Conversations on Chemistry

Alexander Marcet, husband of Jane Marcet — Alexander Marcet
by H. Meyer
Wellcome Library, London

Miranda Garno Nesler earned her PhD from Vanderbilt University and serves as the Director of Women’s Literature & History for Whitmore Rare Books. At WRB, she researches manuscript and print materials through which women and other marginalized people told their own stories; and she places them with institutional clients around the globe to ensure that students and researchers can access a more diverse swath of history. She has been an invited speaker for a range of organizations including WriteGirl LA, The American Culinary Museum, The Belletrist, and the Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America. Past work has appeared in The Shakespearean International Year Book, Studies in English Literature, and The Journal of Narrative Theory. Her essay on the impact of 17th century printer Elizabeth Holt is slated to appear in the collection Making Impressions: Women in Printing and Publishing (Legacy Press, 2021).

THE CITIZEN SCIENTIST Jane Marcet

Music featured in this episode included

Jane Marcet’s books available free on Project Gutenberg