"Good observers of nature" : American women and the scientific study of the natural world, 1820-1885

Summary: "In 'Good Observers of Nature' Tina Gianquitto examines nineteenth-century American women's intellectual and aesthetic experiences of nature and the linguistic, perceptual, and scientific systems that were available to women to describe those experiences. Many women writers of this period used the natural world as a platform for discussing issues of domesticity, education, and the nation. To what extend, asks Gianquitto, did these writers challenge the prevalent sentimental narrative modes (like those used in the popular flower language books) and use scientific terminology to describe the world around them? Though Gianquitto explores a range of women's nature writing (botanical manuals, plant catalogs, travel narratives, seasonal journals, scientific essays), she focuses on four writers and their most influential works : Almira Phelops (Familiar Lectures on Botany, 1829), Margaret Fuller (Summer on the Lakes, in 1843), Susan Fenimore Cooper (Rural Hours, 1850), and Mary Treat (Home Studies in Nature, 1885)."--Back cover.

Record details

ISBN: 0820329193
ISBN: 9780820329192
ISBN: 0820329185
ISBN: 9780820329185
ISBN: 0820336556
ISBN: 9780820336558
Physical Description: 1 online resource (xii, 216 pages) : illustrations
remote
Publisher: Athens : University of Georgia Press, ©2007.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-211) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction. The languages of nature : an overview -- Botany's beautiful arrangement : Almira Phelps and Enlightenment science -- The pressure of hidden causes : Margaret Fuller and Romantic science -- The noble designs of nature : Susan Fenimore Cooper, natural science, and the picturesque aesthetic -- Spiders, ants, and carnivorous plants : Mary Treat and evolutionary science -- Epilogue. Human homes in nature's household : the emergence of a conservation ethic.
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.