Session Chair: Peggy Kidwell (Smithsonian Institution, USA)
Dr. Margarita Piedra as Cuba's first female nuclear engineer. Her role in the development and training of nuclear science in Cuba.
Author: Lubia Díaz Bernal
Co-Author: Lidia Lauren Elías Hardy
Cuba has historically been characterized by its sexist culture and that is why Cuban women have worked hard towards the recognition of their equal rights. This paper aims to highlight the figure of women in the field of nuclear sciences, through the visibility of the first Cuban woman trained in Nuclear Engineering in Cuba and the USSR. Having graduated in Cuba in 1971, Piedra traveled to Moscow to complete her training at the Energy Institute of said city, in the department of Electro-Nuclear Power Plants. She was the only woman in a group of seven men, where the young and enterprising Margarita, due to her great talent and ability, appeared on the cover of the magazine “USSR” as an example of the Cuban female scientist. Creator of the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory within a young institution dedicated to teaching nuclear sciences in Cuba (InSTEC) in which she worked until her death in 2020. Due to the impossibility of obtaining adequate or advanced instruments for teaching, she developed glass instruments and installations so that students could observe the phenomena of heat and mass transfer, and fluid mechanics. Dr. Margarita Piedra was and continues to be the example to follow. continue for the brave and still rare Cuban women who have chosen to channel their lives into the world of nuclear technical sciences.
A Countess and her astrolabe at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900: social and intellectual capital at the turn of the century
Author: Sumner Braund
Why did the Comtesse de Lespinasse submit an astrolabe to the Musée rétrospectif de la classe 15: instruments de précision at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris?
The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900 was designed to surpass all previous expos, and it attracted an estimated 50 million visitors in the course of its 8-month run. The city was transformed through new building projects, some permanent and others temporary, with extensive pavilions covering the city. The high profile of certain exhibitions, enhanced by the social status of their respective organisers, meant that these organisers not only curated displays – they also curated the social capital of objects and donors.
This paper will explore the ways in which Louise Marie Robertine Maillard de Liscourt, Comtesse de Lespinasse, navigated this environment and successfully displayed her astrolabe. The astrolabe that she submitted to Classe 15 had been made in 1227/8 CE for an Ayyubid ruler and nephew of Saladin. The magnificent instrument’s inclusion in Classe 15 raises many questions, including: why did the Comtesse choose this classe? What does this reveal about the status of women in this social and intellectual environment? What did it mean in this space for a French woman to assert physical and intellectual ownership of an instrument from the Islamic world?
This paper will address these questions using correspondence and notarial records from the Lespinasse family, the published records of the Classe 15, and the sale records of the astrolabe (which was sold to another collector, Lewis Evans, in 1911).
Women computers at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1890–1939
Author: Louise Devoy
In April 1890, Astronomer Royal William H. M. Christie (1845-1922) hired the first group of women to be employed in professional astronomy at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Although this initial cohort only stayed for a few years, it set the trend for the ongoing recruitment of women who became an essential part of the Observatory’s staff.
Using archive materials and recently discovered observing notebooks, I will examine the women’s contribution through various questions: how did their roles compare to those of their male colleagues at Greenwich, particularly with respect to the use of instruments? Were they acknowledged in the same way in official publications? How did their experience at Greenwich shape their career and opportunities elsewhere?
These questions will be addressed across three main time periods, starting with the appointment of the ‘lady computers’ in the 1890s, who were ostensibly hired to make observations to facilitate the Observatory’s participation in the Astrographic Catalogue but who also became involved with other departments and instruments.
The second phase considers the First World War period when a few women were either recruited or invited to return to their previous roles as volunteers in response to the vacancies created by the call-up of male staff for military service.
Finally, I will consider the small group of women recruited as ‘Supernumerary Computers’ during the inter-war years who were assigned a variety of computing and data analysis roles.
The anatomical Venus models as epistemic instruments: value influences in the representation of women in science
Author: Alexandra Karakas
The history of science is rich in debates centred around problems concerning material culture and its relation to knowledge production. However, the issue of epistemic/internal and non-epistemic/external values in the sciences is still developing. While contemporary debates surrounding the presence of external and internal values in different phases of the production of scientific knowledge offer a great source of insight, the history of science is still overloaded with instances of value pluralism within physical instruments that are yet to be discussed.
A particularly interesting category of instruments are objects used for representing the female body. A prominent example of these are anatomical models, notably pieces made in Felice Fontana's workshop in Florence in the 18th century. While the functions of material models were diverse, from knowledge dissemination to entertaining, the peculiarity lies in that they were designed with not only internal scientific values in mind, such as clarity and coherence, but they were influenced by external values, such as artistic values, at the same time. These value-laden decisions led to a unique representation of the female body that mirrors the period’s take on social and scientific issues as well. The talk focuses on a lesser-known Fontana model initially commissioned by Joseph II for the newly founded medical academy in Vienna, which was later gifted to the medical faculty in Budapest. The research details the model's rich history and emphasises how external, artistic values determined many representational decisions, resulting in a peculiar visual portrayal of womanhood in the 18th century.
Women assistants using scientific instruments in Tartu before and after World War Two
Author: Janet Laidla
More women entered the staff of universities and other research institutions at the end of 19th and the beginning of the 20th century as calculators, demonstrators and assistants. These assistant positions may have encompassed many different things: from mostly clerical work (typing, correspondence), teaching duties, assisting the researchers, conducting individual research, to keeping libraries and taking care of collections. This also depended from one faculty to another.
The main goal of this presentation is to reveal how many assistants at Tartu had any contact with scientific instruments based on the institutional archival materials and papers from scientific journals. In Athens I briefly introduced one of the women assistants at the astronomical observatory who used a small telescope. How many more examples can we find? We know, for example, that assistants working at the faculty of medicine w
