Honoring 19th Century American Women in Science: How Deborah Warner Scrounged Up Enough Stories for an Exhibit

"When curator Deborah Warner suggested to her superiors at the Smithsonian Institutition that she put together an exhibit documenting the accomplishments of American women in science in the 19th century, her superiors were skeptical.

Women scientists in the 19th century?

Would there be enough of them to fill an exhibit?"

September 16, 1978

On this day, the New Castle News out of New Castle, Pennsylvania, shared an article by Mike Finsilber with a headline that read: Exhibit Depicts Female Scientists.

When curator Deborah Warner suggested to her superiors at the Smithsonian Institutition that she put together an exhibit documenting the accomplishments of American women in science in the 19th century, her superiors were skeptical.

Women scientists in the 19th century?

Would there be enough of them to fill an exhibit?

They doubted it.

Ms. Warner didn’t.

Yesterday her display opened in the Museum of History and Technology, telling of, among others:

Kate Furbish, the botanist who discovered the now-famous Furbish Lousewort.

It is now famous because it is endangered and for a time threatened to block construction of the Lincoln-Dickey Dam in Maine.