Becoming Visible. Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier and the Campaign for the “New Chemistry” (1770s-1790s)

Abstract

This paper examines an episode of the history of chemistry, the campaign for the promotion of so-called “new chemistry,” dating to the second half of the 1780s, to investigate the ways in which women could build their own reputation. I focus on the case of Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier (1758–1836), today known as the wife and scientific associate of the French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794). Drawing on a wide set of published and unpublished sources – laboratory notebooks, travel diaries, letters, and drawings – I will delve deeper into their collaboration, showing how Paulze-Lavoisier appropriated the campaign for the new chemistry to appear as a visible actor in the scientific circles of the time. I will then highlight the multiple self-representations she produced while participating in these events.