Tuesday, 13 May 2025
18:00 - 19:00 (Doors open 18:45)
Free event. Booking not required.
About the event
When you walk around the Main Court at OUMNH, you might notice that something’s missing. Looming over you are statues of Darwin, Linnaeus, Aristotle, and Newton—but there’s only one woman immortalised in the space, the chemist, Dorothy Hodgkin. Hodgkin is far from the only woman to have contributed to the scientific life of OUMNH; in ‘Breaking Ground’, you’ve heard about Mary Buckland’s collaboration with her husband, William—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This talk with OUMNH researcher Grace Exley will delve deep into a century of women’s involvement in the sciences at Oxford. You’ll learn more about the women featured in ‘Breaking Ground’—particularly Mary Buckland (1797-1857)—as well as others you might not have heard of, including Ann Phillips (1803-1862), Grace Prestwich (1832-1899), and Maud Healey. In telling the stories of these largely forgotten women, this talk will show that there’s another side to the history of science at OUMNH; behind the statues, there hides a long tradition of women contributing to scientific research.
About the speaker
Grace Exley is an AHRC CDP PhD student at the University of Leeds and Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Her project, ‘Coming Out of the Shadows: Women and Geology in Oxford, 1813–1914’ explores the changing roles of women in nineteenth-century geology, with a particular focus on the hidden women at Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Accessibility information
| Wheelchair accessible? |
Yes |
| Seating? |
Yes |
| Refreshments? |
No |
| Flashing lights? |
No |
| Loud noises? |
No |
For more information, please visit our accessibility webpage.
