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Mary Somerville

File:Thomas_Phillips_-_Mary_Fairfax,_Mrs_William_Somerville,_1780_-_1872._Writer_on_science_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Mary Somerville

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Also known as Mrs. Mary Somerville, Mary Fairfax, Mary Greig, Mary Fairfax Greig Somerville, Mary Fairfax Somerville, Mary Sommerville

Scottish scientist, writer and polymath (1780–1872)

OverviewAI-generated

Mary Somerville (1780–1872) was a British mathematician, writer, scientist, and physicist. Born Mary Fairfax in Jedburgh, she later used the married names Mary Greig and Mary Somerville. She worked in the fields of mathematics and popular science, writing in English. Her notable works include *On the connection of the physical sciences*, *Personal recollections*, and *Physische Geographie aus dem Englischen von D. Adolph Barth*.

Somerville was a member of several academic institutions, including the American Philosophical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Accademia Pontaniana, and the Royal Irish Academy. She was also a teacher to Ada Lovelace. She died in Naples, where she is buried in the English Cemetery.

Synthesized by Vinony from 34 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Open Library, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1780
Died
1872
Works
31

Top works

  • Sulla connessione delle scienze fisiche
  • Ueberblick der physikalischen Wissenschaften in ihrem Zusammenhange
  • On the connection of the physical sciences
  • De la connexion des sciences physiques ou exposé et rapide de tous les principaux phénomènes astronomiques, physiques, chimiques, géologiques et metéorologiques
  • Personal recollections

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Country
GB
Active from
1961-06-22

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
12
Total plays
21

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Mary+Somerville">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Mary Somerville

Key facts

Born
Mary Fairfax , ( 1780-12-26 ) 26 December 1780, Jedburgh , Scotland
Died
29 November 1872 (1872-11-29) (aged 91), Naples , Kingdom of Italy
Resting place
English Cemetery, Naples
Awards
Patron's Medal (1869)
Fields
Science writing Mathematics

via Wikipedia infobox

~30 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Mary Somerville (née Fairfax, formerly Greig; 1780–1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In John Stuart Mill's 1866 mass petition to the UK Parliament to grant women the right to vote, the first signature on the petition was Somerville's, which she signed before the age of 86.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mary Somerville” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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