Comments on: Lovelace and Somerville

By: Dorothy McMillan

Dorothy McMillan — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:51:17 +0000

I suppose this is a personal puff but never mind. My edition of Mary Somerville’s Recollections: Queen of Science (Canongate, 2001) contains passages which for one reason or another Martha Somerville did not include in her edition. I agree, however, that Mary Somerville benefited from the amateur status of science and that ironically its professionalisation was unkind to her reputation. See Alan Chapman’s Mary Somerville (Canopus, 2004)

By: Quercki

Quercki — Sat, 01 May 2010 22:36:27 +0000

Good post! Thanks especially for the pointer to Mary Somerville’s Memoir, which I have been reading with great interest since finding your blog post.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:35:41 +0000

Thanks, all.

It’s always astonishing to me just how much of the past (95%?) vanishes quickly under detritus and myth, and how little of it we usually think about and access. A little like Tolkein’s Old Forest.

Yes, indeed. And then it’s odd and sort of random which 5% gets chosen to be remembered. And that 5% can change – as in the case of Ada Lovelace.

By: Ian Garrick Mason

Ian Garrick Mason — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 23:44:36 +0000

A superb post about a fascinating figure. It’s always astonishing to me just how much of the past (95%?) vanishes quickly under detritus and myth, and how little of it we usually think about and access. A little like Tolkein’s Old Forest, where all the trees are “queer”, and the paths change course and vanish on their own.

By: Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Teresa Nielsen Hayden — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:46:55 +0000

What a brilliant blogger you are.

By: On the Connexion of Lovelace and Somerville « The Floating Academy

On the Connexion of Lovelace and Somerville « The Floating Academy — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:15:24 +0000

[...] the achievements of women in technology and science,” Rob MacDougall put up a great post about Lovelace’s mentor Mary Somerville, (much of which he borrows from Jay Clayton’s Charles Dickens in [...]

By: Matt Norwood

Matt Norwood — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:03:43 +0000

I like Clayton’s point about untimely figures. Somerville’s story brings to mind Thomas Paine, another person whose ideas and contributions were too out of sync with the times to gain a foothold in the popular historical narrative.

By: People to Know (Ada Lovelace Day Edition): Angel Hoekstra

People to Know (Ada Lovelace Day Edition): Angel Hoekstra — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 04:06:40 +0000

[...] Old is the New New (Rob MacDougall) – “Lovelace and Somerville“ [...]