Lady Science no. 57
Breeding Insects and Reproducing White Supremacy in Maria Sibylla Merian’s Ecology of Dispossession by Elizabeth Polcha
When Love Stories Became Medicine for Warworn Soldiers by Mary Mahoney
“Constant Companions” and “Intimate Friends”: The Lives and Careers of Maggie Benson and Nettie Gourlay by Kathleen Sheppard
In this issue, Elizabeth Polcha argues that celebration of white women scientists who were colonizers and relied on imperial networks to carry out their scientific work upholds white supremacist narratives of history and erases the stories of indigenous whom they relied upon for their work. Mary Mahoney explores how librarians used books as medicine to treat World War I soldiers and how many librarians sought to explain why men preferred love stories over more masculine genres. Lastly, Kathleen Sheppard re-examines the relationship between archaeologists Maggie Benson and Nettie Gourlay, and she argues that their relationship, which has been traditionally described as friendship, was romantic and which benefited both women personally and professionally.
Image credit: Spectacled Caiman and False Coral Snake, Plate LXX, Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium II. Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain.
