Today’s Silenced Woman of STEM not only spent hours creating beautiful and scientifically accurate illustrations of the microscopic world, but she was also a self-taught naturalist, an acclaimed author, and an astronomer in a time when women were mostly banned from professional science. This is the story of Mary Ward. She published a significant amount of work, all while raising eight children. She also holds the unfortunate, morbid distinction of being the first person in the world known to have been killed in a motor vehicle accident.

Sources

https://www.herstory.ie/news/2020/2/11/mary-ward

https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/mary-ward/

https://www.whipplelib.hps.cam.ac.uk/special/exhibitions-and-displays/microscopy-in-print/microscopy-books-ward

https://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/2024sciencewomen/women/mward

https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/mary-ward-2/

https://cobbdefense.com/first-car-accident-history/

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/100347-first-road-traffic-death

https://offalyhistoryblog.com/2019/08/30/mary-ward-artist-naturalist-and-astronomer-a-woman-for-our-time/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15949449/