Sarah Bowdich Lee (1791-1856): Pioneering Natural Science From Below

History from below uncovers overlooked protagonists often contributing to national endeavour against considerable odds. Mrs T. Edward Bowdich then Mrs R. Lee (1791-1856) is indicative. When women allegedly cannot participate in early nineteenth-century scientific exploration, discovery and publication, Sarah’s multiple specialist contributions to French and British natural history, and to their dissemination, have attracted no book-length study. The project’s monograph (with Anthem Press) is the first to investigate Sarah’s unbroken production of discipline-changing scientific work, achieved at great personal cost. Her larger significance is then as a case study for women in STEM(M) today. The project disseminates interdisciplinary and intercultural lessons by also mounting in 2022 the first exhibition of Sarah’s pioneering work in the Bell Pettigrew Natural History Museum, University of St Andrews. 

The project is led by the Buchanan Chair of French, Professor Mary Orr, and is generously supported by the British Academy Donald Winch Fund Senior Research Fellowship in Intellectual History, 2021-22.