Eliza Madelina Wilbur Souvielle (October 21, 1851 – March 31, 1930) was a prominent scientist,

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

, botanist, inventor, author and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

.3 amazing alarming or transforming scientists from Jacksonville
May 20, 2013 Metro Jacksonville She studied at Batavia Female Seminary in New York and may have been the first female to lecture in science at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and her work was published in magazines and newspapers including ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

'' and the '' New York Herald''. She published '' Continuity (magazine)''.Empire Point mansion has long history of strong Trout women
by Leni Bessette and Louise Stanton Warren October 8, 2005 Florida Times-Union Wilbur married

Thomas Basnett Thomas Basnett (1808–1886) was a prominent British astronomer and meteorologist. He built Marabanong in the Jacksonville, Florida area and married Eliza Wilbur in his third marriage. Basnett moved from England to Illinois in 1835 and ran a dr ...

and moved to

Marabanong Marabanong is a historic mansion in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It was built in 1876 on the site of Perley Place, the antebellum mansion purchased in 1870 by British astronomer Thomas Basnett that was originally built by Thomas Perley and ...

in 1880. After his death in 1886 she married Frenchman Mathieu Souvielle, a throat and lung surgeon. She wrote ''Sequel to the Parliament of Religion'' about non-Western religions under the pseudonym Eban Malcolm Sutcliffe and ''The Ulyssiad'' (Dacosta Publishing Co. of Jacksonville, 1896), a biography of

Ulysses Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

in verse. She was active in the

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

campaign, served as secretary for the Home for the Aged in Jacksonville for seven years, and was vice president of the Jacksonville Branch of the League of American Pen Women. Her patents included three for

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observ ...

s. She was also involved in efforts to engineer an airplane.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilbur, Eliza 1851 births 1930 deaths American women astronomers Women inventors