A laboratory of one's own: the life and works of Agnes Arber, F.R.S. (1879-1960)

Abstract

To many she was the ‘lady of botany’ and young biologists should think of an acute and powerful observer wrapt in penetrating and ever more powerful philosophy, who grasped the world without travel, and how they attract into the circle of discussion such another if they are fortunate.

Agnes Arber: form in the mind and the eye

“…William Derek Clayton (1965) argues that, in part, her research was limited by the relatively crude equipment to which she had access; and there is validity to this observation. When she set up her home laboratory, she was allowed to take a microtome and microscopes from the Balfour Laboratory at Cambridge, a facility for women researchers and science students where she had worked until it was closed in 1926 (Packer, 1997). Arber returned these items to the university in the 1950s when she resigned herself to doing no further morphological research.…”

Beginnings of Wetland Science in Britain: Agnes Arber and William H. Pearsall

“…Arber was nominated in 1921 for the presidency of Section K (Botany) of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, but her male colleagues opposed her nomination (Packer 1997). However, her contributions to science were widely recognized and resulted in her being elected in 1946 as a fellow of the Royal Society, the third woman to receive this honor.…”

“…Her struggles as a woman trying to establish a scientific career in the first half of the 20th Century have made her a feminist icon. For an examination of Arber's life and career from a feminist prespective, see Packer (1997) and Schmid (2001).…”

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Scientific Publication at the Royal Society, 1945–1990

“…To our surprise, the very first women we have found acting as referees for the Royal Society actually pre-date the admission of female Fellows in 1945. Botanist Agnes Arber (Packer, 1997) As Table 3 shows, very few papers were refereed by women. Much of the refereeing activity by women in the 1950s and 1960s was single-handedly due to Kathleen Lonsdale.…”