Victorian Lady and Her Microscope: Mary Ward

When Victorian women in science Mary Ward (1827-1869) "wrote her first book, Sketches with the microscope, she apparently believed that no one would print it because of her gender or lack of academic credentials. She published 250 copies of it privately, and several hundred handbills were distributed to advertise it. The printing sold during the next few weeks, and this was enough to to make a London publisher take the risk and contract for future publication. The book was reprinted eight times between 1858 and 1880 as A World of Wonders Revealed by the Microscope." 

"She was basically a mid-ninteenth century BAMF."

"She studied entomology and astronomy as well as microscopy,
and wrote popular works on each of those topics, placing her among the earliest women to publish in such fields."

This is her microscope. 

Her study of moth wings. 

It's not clear that the portrait (at top) is of her. There was a Victorian madness for microscopy and a fashionable Victorian lady would have wanted her portrait painted with microscope. Rejoice, nerds! 

Photo credits:

http://www.antique-microscopes.com/portrait/A%20Victorian%20Lady%20and%20Her%20Microscope.htm

https://www.whipplelib.hps.cam.ac.uk/special/exhibitions-and-displays/microscopy-in-print/microscopy-books-ward