Ele Willoughby, PhDSep 9, 2024
For the #SciArtSeptember prompt origin a print about autodidact marine #biologist Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794 – 1871). Not only did she invent aquariums for scientific study, she solved the millenium-old mystery about the nature and origin of the argonaut’s shell, showing that it is in fact an egg-sack produced by the animal itself. ⠀
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At 18, Villepreux, eldest daughter of a shoemaker, walked 400 km to Paris to try to make her fortune 🧵1/
#MastoArt
#printmaking #womenInSTEM #sciart #linocut
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDSep 9, 2024
as a dressmaker & made a name for herself when she sewed Princess Caroline’s wedding gown. She met Irish merchant James Power, who was based in Italy. She taught herself English & Italian before the couple married & moved to Sicily in 1818 where she dedicated herself to natural history & inventorying the island’s ecosystem, both on & offshore. ⠀
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She invented the #aquarium to allow her to better study marine animals. She had a glass one for study, a submersible one which fit in a cage, & 🧵2/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDSep 9, 2024
a cage which could be anchored at sea to study #argonauts which had not fared well in captivity. She published her first book in 1839, Observations et expériences physiques sur plusieurs animaux marins et terrestres & her 2nd, Guida per la Sicilia, in 1842. She had a particular interest in molluscs & their fossils, as well as the mysterious greater #Argonaut or #papernautilus. ⠀
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She wrote about conservation & developed principles of sustainable aquaculture in Sicily. 🧵3/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD
She was a talented artist & illustrator of species she observed. She was admitted as 1st woman in the scientific academy Catania Accademia Gioenia, as a correspondent member of the London Zoological Society &16 other learned societies. Biologist & paleontologist Sir Richard Owen called her “Mother of Aquariophily.”⠀
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Tragically when they left Sicily in 1843, she lost many of her records, tools & scientific illustrations in a shipwreck which may explain why she gave up 🧵4/5
Sep 9, 2024 at 1:19pmWeb
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDSep 9, 2024

experimenting though she continued to write & speak publicly about the natural world. The couple divided their time between Paris & London. She fled Paris during a siege by the Prussian Army in 1870, &returned to Juillac where she died in 1871.⠀

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