Queen Charlotte's scientific collections and natural history networks

Abstract

In 1781, the first issue of The Lady's Poetical Magazine lauded Queen Charlotte (1744–1818) for her role in furthering the sciences, and indeed, to give but one example, the queen's interest in the geological researches of her reader, Jean André de Luc (1727–1817), induced him to write a treatise on his system for her perusal. Besides assembling a significant library containing volumes on all kinds of intellectual pursuits, she collected natural history specimens and scientific instruments, and employed, funded or corresponded with both male and female scientists, often by means of intermediaries. Like many other eighteenth-century women, the queen was aware of the significance of diligent networking, although she, too, as this article shows, faced particular difficulties when trying to assemble or access networks at court, despite her many connections to bluestockings, physicians, astronomers and botanists. Women's scientific interests have frequently been obscured by historiography's focus on the pursuits of male scientists: by uncovering female networks such as Queen Charlotte's, we get a chance to revise our notions of (elite) women's scientific pursuits in the eighteenth century.