000			04637cam a22005058i 4500
001			on1370000179
003			OCoLC
005			20240325165719.0
007			t|
008			230530s2023 nyua e b 001 0ceng
010			_a 2023010253
015			_aGBC3G9455 _2bnb
016	7		_a021199512 _2Uk
019			_a1406562403
020			_a1541674170 _q(hardcover)
020			_a9781541674172 _q(hardcover)
020			_z9781541674189 _q(ebook)
035			_a(OCoLC)1370000179 _z(OCoLC)1406562403
040			_aDLC _beng _erda _cDLC _dOCLCF _dTOH _dUKMGB _dIAD _dRNL _dUOK _dMiTN
042			_apcc
043			_an-us-pa _an-us---
050	0	0	_aQ141 _b.M375 2023
082	0	0	_a509.2/273 _223/eng/20230530
092			_a509.2273 M8331M 2023
100	1		_aMcNeur, Catherine
245	1	0	_aMischievous creatures : _bthe forgotten sisters who transformed early American science / _cCatherine McNeur.
246	3	0	_aForgotten sisters who transformed early American science
250			_aFirst edition.
264		1	_aNew York : _bBasic Books, _c2023.
300			_aix, 418 pages : _billustrations ; _c24 cm.
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _bnc _2rdacarrier
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 345-405) and index.
520			_a"The nineteenth century was a transformative period in the history of American science, as scientific study, once the domain of armchair enthusiasts and amateurs, became the purview of professional experts and institutions. In Mischievous Creatures, historian Catherine McNeur shows that women were central to the development of the natural sciences during this critical time. She does so by uncovering the forgotten lives of entomologist Margaretta Hare Morris and botanist Elizabeth Morris-sister scientists whose essential contributions to their respective fields, and to the professionalization of science as a whole, have been largely erased. Margaretta was famous within antebellum scientific circles for her work with seventeen-year cicadas and for her discoveries of previously undocumented insect species and the threats they posed to agriculture. Unusually for her time, she published under her own name, and eventually became one of the first women elected to both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Margaretta's older sister Elizabeth preferred anonymity to accolades, but she nevertheless became a trusted expert on Philadelphia's flora, created illustrations for major reference books, and published numerous articles in popular science journals. The sisters corresponded and collaborated with many of the male scientific eminences of their day, including Asa Gray and Louis Agassiz, although they also faced condescension and outright misogyny: no less a figure than Charles Darwin dismissed Margaretta's (correct) assertion that water beetles help to move fish eggs from lake to lake, and the sisters long suspected that an arsonist who twice targeted their property was motivated by misogynist resentment. Alongside the lives of the Morris sisters, McNeur traces the larger story of American science's professionalization, a process that began, she shows, earlier in the nineteenth century than is traditionally thought. She reveals an early Republic hungry to define itself and eager to keep pace with the scientific culture of Europe, as the sciences transformed from hobbies into careers, with more government and university support, professional journals and organizations. Ironically, while women like the Morris sisters were central to the growth and development of their fields, this very transformation would ultimately wrest opportunities from women in the generations that followed, confining women in science to underpaid and underappreciated positions. Mischievous Creatures is not only an overdue portrait of two pioneering women scientists, but also a vital and revelatory new history of the birth of modern American science"-- _cProvided by publisher.
600	1	0	_aMorris, Elizabeth Carrington, _d1795-1865
600	1	0	_aMorris, Margaretta Hare, _d1797-1867
650		0	_aBotanists _zPennsylvania _zPhiladelphia _vBiography.
650		0	_aEntomologists _zPennsylvania _zPhiladelphia _vBiography.
650		0	_aScientists _zUnited States _xHistory _y19th century.
650		0	_aWomen scientists _zPennsylvania _zPhiladelphia _vBiography.
650		0	_aWomen scientists _zPennsylvania _zPhiladelphia _xHistory _y19th century.
651		0	_aGermantown (Philadelphia, Pa.) _vBiography.
655		7	_aBiographies _2lcgft
999			_c524268 _d524268