Dressing Up For 19th Century #WomenInScience Fern Botany

This is my favorite dress ever. Had I been a 19th century lady naturalist #earlywomeninscience I would have worn the amazing out of it. I would have rocked the frock, promenading, taking Victorian natural historian cosplay fieldnotes on ferns.

What's with the ferns, Victorians?Maria Mitchell, early astronomer, in a portrait with ferns.
Be stunned by the Blaschka Glass Models of Plants. 

According to the Met Museum, my "it" dress for 19th century science and botanizing ferns "would have been worn for tennis, yachting, or general seaside walking" -- I love general seaside walking! that is, when I'm not botanizing ferns. And a purple neck bow? I'm at #womeninSTEM excitement level eleven, "intrepid cross-dressing plantswoman French botanist Jeanne Baret."


Frosays all around (the story of pink wine's path from tacky to chic), though it's hard to imagine Maria Mitchell drinking rosay (I raise a glass to her anyway). But Jeanne Baret would have been down with it, ladyfriends.

They called her an herbwoman.

Jeanne Baret wearing -- gasp! oh no she didn't! -- pants.
(No f*&^ing ferns in this portrait.)

She's was an 18th century woman scientist and the first woman to go around the world.