Donald L. Opitz

“A Triumph of Brains over Brute”: Women and Science at the Horticultural College, Swanley, 1890–1910

The founding of Britains first horticultural college in 1889 advanced a scientific and coeducational response to three troubling national concerns: a major agricultural depression; the economic distress of single, unemployed women; and imperatives to develop the colonies. Buoyed by the technical instruction and womens movements, the Horticultural College and Produce Company, Limited, at Swanley, Kent, crystallized a transformation in the horticultural profession in which new science-based, formalized study threatened an earlier emphasis on practical apprenticeship training, with the effect of opening male-dominated trades to women practitioners. By 1903, the college closed its doors to male students, and new pathways were forged for women students interested in pursuing further scientific study. Resistance to the Horticultural Colleges model of science-based womens horticultural education positioned science and women as contested subjects throughout this period of horticultures expansion in the academy.

Domesticity in the Making of Modern Science

UK, Europe, & ROW (excl. Australia & Canada): USA: Australia: Direct Customer Services, Palgrave Macmillan, VHPS, Customer Services, Palgrave Macmillan, 16365 James Madison Highway Palgrave Macmillan, The Macmillan Campus, (US route 15), Gordonsville, Level 1, 15-19 Claremont St, 4 Crinan Street VA 22942, USA South Yarra London, N1 9XW, UK Email: consumerorders@mpsvirginia.com VIC 3141, Australia Tel: 0207 418 5802 Tel +61 3 9811 2555 (free call) Email: orders@palgrave.com Email: orders@unitedbookdistributors.com.au Hardback 9781137492722 Oct 2015 £63.00

Co-operative Comradeships Versus Same-Sex Partnerships: Historicizing Collaboration Among Homosexual Couples in the Sciences

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‘The sceptre of her pow'r’: Nymphs, Nobility, and Nomenclature in Early Victorian Science

115.00CAN Domesticity in the Making of Modern Science

Introduction: Domesticity and the Historiography of Science

In this chapter I consider a range of methodological challenges that complicate historical analysis of same-sex partnerships in science and then adopt Joan Scott’s concept of “imbrications” of subjective experiences with political discourses to analyze the sexual-science discourse of Edward Carpenter’s homosocial, country menage near Sheffield, Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. Based on my analysis, I suggest Carpenter’s case necessitates an expansion of the category “collaborative couples” beyond a focus on cohabitating, married partners, and I introduce the contemporary term, “co-operative comradeship” as a more historically salient means by which to describe Carpenter’s collaborative industry.

“Not merely wifely devotion”: Collaborating in the Construction of Science at Terling Place

Only weeks following Queen Victorias ascension to the throne on 20 June 1837, a controversy brewed over the naming of the ‘vegetable wonder’ known today as Victoria amazonica (Sowerby). This gargantuan lily was encountered by the Royal Geographical Societys explorer Robert Schomburgk in British Guyana on New Years Day, 1837. Following Schomburgks wishes, metropolitan naturalists sought Victorias pleasure in naming the flower after her, but the involvement of multiple agents and obfuscation of their actions resulted in two royal names for the lily: Victoria regina (Gray) and Victoria regia (Lindley). To resolve the duplicity in names, the protagonists, John Edward Gray and John Lindley, made priority claims for their respective names, ultimately founding their authorities on conventions aligned with gentlemanly manners and deference to nobility. This article will analyse the controversy, hitherto unexamined by historians, and argue for its significance in repositioning Queen Victoria – and nobility generally – as central agents in the making of authority in early Victorian science.

Attending to Spirituality in Issues of Science and Religion: Challenges and Triumphs

Nearly three decades ago, Steven Shapin argued that, among a range of venues in seventeenth-century England — places like the shops of apothecaries and instrument makers, coffeehouses, royal palaces, and college rooms — private residences of gentlemen were ‘by far the most significant’, with the ‘overwhelming majority of experimental trials, displays, and discussions that we know about’ having occurred within them.1 Despite others’ recognition of the wider applicability of this assessment well beyond this context, Alix Cooper noted in her survey of scientific homes and households in the early modern period, ‘Few historians of science have paid attention to these kinds of “private” spaces.’2 Attuned to the historiography of science’s continued neglect of domestic space and related themes — domesticity, households, and families -this volume investigates the historical significance of domestic matters for the production of scientific knowledge.

For Better or For Worse? Collaborative Couples in the Sciences

In this chapter I critique the literary construction of the scientific practice of John Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh as a solitary pursuit within a domain separated from family life, and I analyze, instead, the science of his home, Terling Place, as a collaboration with his wife Evelyn Strutt, Baroness Rayleigh. As opposed to judging the character of their marital collaboration anachronistically through a professional lens, I analyze Terling science within the context of late-Victorian country-house society characterized by an aristocratic, evangelical-Anglican orientation. This case demonstrates how collaboration can be an unstable construct reliant upon the meanings imbued by the historical subjects and their discursive representations.

Universal Learning Support Design: Maximizing Learning Beyond the Classroom

Addressing students’ authentic selves and spiritual journeys poses pedagogical challenges, particularly for new faculty. The author reflects on his challenges and triumphs experienced while teaching Issues in Science and Religion at DePaul University’s School for New Learning, to highlight three effective strategies: multiple and varied means for students to expose their authentic selves in safe environments; disclosure of one’s authentic self to students to model spiritual reflection; and frequent reinforcement and clarification of course objectives and assessment criteria. The author provides examples of practices and discusses the value of collegial and institutional support and faculty development opportunities.