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020    9781541674172|q(hardcover) 
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082 00 509.2/273|223/eng/20230530 
092    509.2273|bMCN 
100 1  McNeur, Catherine,|eauthor. 
245 10 Mischievous creatures :|bthe forgotten sisters who 
       transformed early American science /|cCatherine McNeur. 
246 30 Forgotten sisters who transformed early American science 
250    First edition. 
264  1 New York :|bBasic Books,|c2023. 
300    ix, 418 pages :|billustrations ;|c25 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-405) and 
       index. 
520    "The nineteenth century was a transformative period in the
       history of American science, as scientific study, once the
       domain of armchair enthusiasts and amateurs, became the 
       purview of professional experts and institutions. In 
       Mischievous Creatures, historian Catherine McNeur shows 
       that women were central to the development of the natural 
       sciences during this critical time. She does so by 
       uncovering the forgotten lives of entomologist Margaretta 
       Hare Morris and botanist Elizabeth Morris--sister 
       scientists whose essential contributions to their 
       respective fields, and to the professionalization of 
       science as a whole, have been largely erased. Margaretta 
       was famous within antebellum scientific circles for her 
       work with seventeen-year cicadas and for her discoveries 
       of previously undocumented insect species and the threats 
       they posed to agriculture. Unusually for her time, she 
       published under her own name, and eventually became one of
       the first women elected to both the American Association 
       for the Advancement of Science and the Academy of Natural 
       Sciences in Philadelphia. Margaretta's older sister 
       Elizabeth preferred anonymity to accolades, but she 
       nevertheless became a trusted expert on Philadelphia's 
       flora, created illustrations for major reference books, 
       and published numerous articles in popular science 
       journals. The sisters corresponded and collaborated with 
       many of the male scientific eminences of their day, 
       including Asa Gray and Louis Agassiz, although they also 
       faced condescension and outright misogyny: no less a 
       figure than Charles Darwin dismissed Margaretta's 
       (correct) assertion that water beetles help to move fish 
       eggs from lake to lake, and the sisters long suspected 
       that an arsonist who twice targeted their property was 
       motivated by misogynist resentment. Alongside the lives of
       the Morris sisters, McNeur traces the larger story of 
       American science's professionalization, a process that 
       began, she shows, earlier in the nineteenth century than 
       is traditionally thought. She reveals an early Republic 
       hungry to define itself and eager to keep pace with the 
       scientific culture of Europe, as the sciences transformed 
       from hobbies into careers, with more government and 
       university support, professional journals and 
       organizations. Ironically, while women like the Morris 
       sisters were central to the growth and development of 
       their fields, this very transformation would ultimately 
       wrest opportunities from women in the generations that 
       followed, confining women in science to underpaid and 
       underappreciated positions. Mischievous Creatures is not 
       only an overdue portrait of two pioneering women 
       scientists, but also a vital and revelatory new history of
       the birth of modern American science"--|cProvided by 
       publisher. 
600 10 Morris, Margaretta Hare,|d1797-1867. 
600 10 Morris, Elizabeth Carrington,|d1795-1865. 
650  0 Botanists|zPennsylvania|zPhiladelphia|vBiography. 
650  0 Entomologists|zPennsylvania|zPhiladelphia|vBiography. 
650  0 Women scientists|zPennsylvania|zPhiladelphia|vBiography. 
650  0 Women scientists|zPennsylvania|zPhiladelphia|xHistory
       |y19th century. 
650  0 Scientists|zUnited States|xHistory|y19th century. 
651  0 Germantown (Philadelphia, Pa.)|vBiography.