Research Guides: HIST 286: Gender and the Construction of Science in America, 1700-1900 (HC): Books

Finding Scholarly Studies in Books

Use the Tripod catalog This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new window to look for relevant books owned by Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore.

The following subject searches are a sampling of possibilities. To find materials on a topic, try doing a title search in the Tripod Catalog to find some relevant material and then use the subject headings assigned to those titles to find more books.

"natural history" AND "united states" [Subject] AND (women* OR gender*) [Keyword]

"women in science" [Subject] AND (18th OR 19th) [Keyword]

(education OR seminary OR school*) AND (women* OR girl* OR gender*) AND "united states" AND 19th [Subject]

Tripod Catalog
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Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges each have their own Tripod catalog. Use Tripod to find relevant scholarship owned by your home library as well as print resources at the other two schools. To see digital material owned only by BMC, use the BMC Tripod link (tripod.brynmawr.edu). You will need to be on the BMC campus in order to access those digital resources.
Change the resource group on the search bar to limit results to specific materials like books and films.
Use the Request link in an item's record to have it delivered to the library of your choice . Note that you need to log into Tripod in order to see the Request link. If you are already in Tripod, use the Sign In link at the top of every page to log in.

WorldCat
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A catalog of the holdings of books, journals, and other materials held by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) member libraries throughout the United States and in other countries.
WorldCat is an important place to look for many materials not owned by the Tri-College Libraries. This combined library catalog contains more than 400 million records describing items owned by libraries around the world. Many of these items are available to you though interlibrary loan. Use the FindIt button to request items you see in WorldCat.

Borrowing beyond the Tri-Co
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1. E-Z Borrow - Request books that are not available in Tripod. It usually takes three days or less for E-Z Borrow books to arrive.
2. Interlibrary Loan (ILL) - Request books not in E-Z Borrow. They can come in as little as four or five days. Also use ILL to request films, dissertations, sound recordings, and other materials.
3. Articles - Request journal articles not available in your college library. You will receive digital copies of the articles in your email sometimes as quickly as the following day.

Selected Books

American Curiosity: Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World by Susan Scott Parrish; Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture Staff (Contribution by)
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ISBN: 0807856789
Publication Date: 2006-02-27
Parrish examines how various peoples in the British colonies understood and represented the natural world. Scientific knowledge about America, rather than flowing strictly from metropole to colony, emerged from a horizontal exchange of information across the Atlantic. Thus Anglo-American nonelites, women, Indians, and enslaved Africans all played crucial roles in gathering and relaying new information to Europe.
Fugitive Science by Britt Rusert
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ISBN: 9781479847662
Publication Date: 2017-04-18
Fugitive Science makes natural science central to how we understand the origins and development of African American literature and culture. Routinely excluded from institutions of scientific learning and training, African Americans transformed cultural spaces like the page, the stage, the parlor, and even the pulpit into laboratories of knowledge and experimentation. Recovers neglected figures including Sarah Mapps Douglass,
"Good Observers of Nature": American women and the scientific study of the natural world, 1820-1885 by Tina Gianquitto
ISBN: 9780820329192
Publication Date: 2007-07-15
Examines 19th century American women's intellectual and aesthetic experiences of nature and investigates the linguistic, perceptual, and scientific systems that were available to women to describe those experiences. Many women writers of this period used the natural world as a platform for discussing issues of domesticity, education, and the nation.
Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science by Renée Bergland
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ISBN: 9780807021422
Publication Date: 2008-04-01
Before the Civil War, women flourished in science and mathematics, disciplines considered more suitable for girls. Maria Mitchell apprenticed with her father, an amateur astronomer; taught herself higher math and for years regularly "swept" the night sky from her rooftop observatory. In 1847 Mitchell discovered a comet and was catapulted to fame. Within a few years she was one of America's first professional astronomers;.
The Science Education of American Girls by Kimberly Tolley
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ISBN: 0415934737
Publication Date: 2002-10-25
Provides a comparative analysis of the science education of adolescent boys and girls, and analyzes the evolution of girls' scientific interests from the antebellum era through the twentieth century.
Also available in print.
Women Physicians and Professional Ethos in Nineteenth-Century America by Carolyn Skinner
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ISBN: 0809333015
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Provides a unique example of how women influenced both popular and medical discourse. This volume is especially notable because it considers the work of African American and American Indian women professionals. Drawing on a range of books, articles, and speeches, Carolyn Skinner analyzes the rhetorical practices of nineteenth-century American women physicians.
Also available in print in Tripod.
The Women Who Popularized Geology in the 19th Century by Kristine Larsen
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ISBN: 3319649515
Publication Date: 2017-10-23
The female authors highlighted in this monograph represent a special breed of science writer, women who not only synthesized the science of their day (often drawing upon their own direct experience in the laboratory, field, classroom, and/or public lecture hall), but used their works to simultaneously educate, entertain, and, in many cases, evangelize.
Available online only at BMC. HC students can request the book or use it at BMC.