Day of the Dead, 19th-Century Lady Naturalist Style

Today, Day of the Dead, All Saints, I'm thinking of all the dead 19th-century lady naturalists. Maybe  La Calavera Catrina (above), was a 19th-century woman in science? Why not? Her large, feathered picture hat reads Edwardian. She certainly seems like she would take an interest with those great big eyes.

It's strange reading Darwin and Women, A Selection of Letters as I am every night (it's on my bedside table) and realizing they're all dead.

My altar for Day of the Dead, usually I decorate it. But this year I have left it unadorned. It's just a plain coffee table anyway, made with the wood that was once my baby crib made by my sculpture-making arty aunt from trees on my grandparents' farm. Unadorned feels right. No masks. No cloths. No multicolored blinking lights signifying at prayer here.

What life wants from you is everything, just like college admissions. 

The early women in science I research have already given it their all. They have become ghosts, or, at any rate, Wikipedia pages (and memes if they're lucky). Here's a list of female scientists before the 20th century.

I took a class at Smith called "Death In The West" and it was one of the best classes, it prepared me for something, making re-corporeal the people that are now shades.  Alive or dead we're stardust.