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Illustration of Common Holly

 

Elizabeth Fitton (Irish) and Sarah Mary Fitton (Irish, 1796-1874). Conversations on Botany.

1817. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown

23h49489. Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, Special & Area Studies Collections,

George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida.

 

Illustration of Common Red Poppy

 

Elizabeth Fitton (Irish) and Sarah Mary Fitton (Irish, 1796-1874). Conversations on Botany.

1817. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown

23h49489. Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, Special & Area Studies Collections,

George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida.

 

These botanical texts, written by women, offered a quick and widely accepted insight into science and education for both young boys and girls, by teaching – in dialogue – the native garden plants typically found in England. Botany was thought to be a subject that enhanced the learner’s moral and spiritual life, and was therefore a way of unobtrusively educating girls in science. However, these books became highly criticized with the introduction of the Linnaean system of Botany, which references male and female reproductive organs in its determination of class and order of plants. The use of human reproductive organs as plant identification was highly controversial for the time, but many authors were able to use a combination of the Linnaean, Thunberg, and Withering systems in order to provide a simple outline of distinguishing plants without being distasteful. The importance of these books and their authors lies in the accessibility of both the books and the subject matter to be studied. Some of the titles seen here became regularly circulated and highly affordable, bringing botanical texts to the masses, all while maintaining an unthreatening manner of domesticity.

Geography

Botany

Zoology