Frontiers of Knowledge

Isabella Cortese, I secreti de la Signora Isabella Cortese, ne' quali si contengono cose minerali, medicinali, arteficiose, & alchimiche, & molte de l'arte profumatoria, appartenenti a ogni gran signora : con altri bellissimi secreti aggiunti (Venetia : Appresso G. Bariletto, 1574), from the E. F. Smith Collection. 602 C815

This work, printed in Venice in 1574, has been described as “the only printed book by a female alchemist in the sixteenth century” (Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance, ABC-CLIO, 2007) and has an attention-grabbing reference to alchemy in its title, but Isabella Cortese dismissed traditional alchemical texts as “only fictions and riddles” and focused on practical applications in medicine, cosmetics, and metalworking.

Marie Meurdrac, La chymie charitable et facile: en faveur des dames (A Paris : Ches Jean D'Hoüry ..., 1674), from the E. F. Smith Collection. 540 M575

Marie Meurdrac wrote this account of her chemical studies for an audience of women.  First published in 1666, this is a copy of the second edition, published in 1674; a third edition was published in 1711.  Meurdrac wrote in the introduction that she hesitated to publish it, telling herself that “it was not the profession of a lady to teach; that she should remain silent, listen and learn without displaying her own public knowledge”; but eventually she concluded “that minds have no sex and that if the minds of women were cultivated like those of men, and that if as much time and energy were used to instruct the minds of the former, they would equal those of the latter …” (Marelene and Geoffrey Rayner-Canham, Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles From Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century, Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2001).

Letter from Marie Curie to Edgar Fahs Smith, 1921, from the Edgar Fahs Smith papers, circa 1870-1940. Ms. Coll. 112

Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867-1934) pioneered research on radioactivity and won two Nobel prizes before her death resulting from exposure to radiation. She wrote to Edgar Fahs Smith (1854-1928), a chemist and the provost of the University of Pennsylvania, thanking him for the friendly welcome to the United States during a visit in 1921

Illustrations and publication relating to a six-legged rat, 1915, from the Sara B. Conrow papers, 1896-1932. Ms. Coll. 122

Sara Conrow (born 1881) was a scientist who did some of her most valuable research at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology.  In 1915, she studied a six-legged rat, creating drawings and writing an article (online at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ar.1090120305) about her findings.

Photograph album documenting Gladys Rutherford's first five years as a practicing doctor and medical missionary in Northern India from 1923 to 1928, in Gladys Rutherford photograph album, 1923-1928. Ms. Coll. 1115

Gladys Rutherford (born 1894) was an English woman who earned her Bachelor of Medicine in 1921 and her Bachelor of Surgery and her diploma in tropical medicine in 1922 from the University of Liverpool.  If that was not audacious enough, she left the comforts of home to travel to Northern India where she worked as a practicing doctor and medical missionary from 1923 to 1928.  In 1955, she was awarded the first John Holt Medal by the Liverpool School for Tropical Medicine for her work in hygiene in India.

Walden School brochure, 1931, from the Margaret Naumburg papers, 1912-1974. Ms. Coll. 294

In 1914 in New York, Margaret Naumburg (1890-1983) and Claire Raphael founded the Children’s School, later renamed the Walden School.  They aspired to offer children a progressive education in which students were free to follow their curiosity and creativity.  The pictures in this promotional brochure from 1931 show girls and boys working independently.  Wearing smocks in anticipation of making a mess in art class was a new idea in 1914.

Photograph of art by a schizophrenic patient, before 1950, from the Margaret Naumburg papers, 1912-1974. Ms. Coll. 294

After a first career as a trailblazer in progressive education, Margaret Naumburg later went on to be part of the establishment of the field of art therapy in the United States, beginning with work at the New York State Psychiatric Institute with adults and children in the 1940s.  This photograph is of artwork by one of her patients, which she reproduced in her 1950 publication Schizophrenic Art:  Its Meaning in Pyschotherapy.