“Science Needs Women”

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • September 28, 2020

The Maria Mitchell (Virtual) Women of Science Symposium October 2, 2020 1-4PM


In my younger days when I was pained by half educated, loose and inaccurate ways which we all had, I used to say, ‘How much women need exact science.’ But since I have known some workers in science who were not always true to the teaching of nature, who have loved self  more than science, I have said, ‘How much science needs women.’ – Maria Mitchell


In 2018, in part to honor Maria Mitchell’s 200 th birthday’s anniversary, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association hosted its first Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It was a fabulous success with a sold out crowd – and a wait list. We welcomed women and men from around the country and at all levels of their STEM path – from undergraduates to early and mid-career to late-career and retirees. All were active in STEM whether it be as a mathematician, a professor, a middle school teacher, an engineer, or an undergraduate student – all came together to discuss the place of and difficulties for women in STEM. We heard from women leaders in STEM at all stages of their careers and met in small salon discussion groups to developed real-word solutions to bring back to our places of work and education. It was an exhilarating and rewarding experience and one that was incredibly well-received.

While we had intended to meet for a two-day event again this year, the COVID-19/Coronavirus Pandemic brought that plan to a halt (And, we all need to be safe and cautious so it’s a good halt!). Happily, we were able to create a mini-online version which we will be hosting on October 2 from 1-4PM. It is FREE but registration is required at www.mmwiss.org . While it will be different, not meeting and working together in-person, we hope this will give people an idea of what the MMWSS is all about. Our focus for this shortened event will be on diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality with a keynote and one panel discussion. More information about these incredible women in STEM who will be joining us can be found at the MMWSS website – where you can also register to join us and what is already well over 200 attendees!


I’d like to share with you two anonymous testimonials from two undergraduate women in STEM who joined us at the first MMWSS in 2018 – they are in the early stages of their STEM path and their words give you a sense of what everyone in attendance was feeling and what they gained:


The Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium (MMWSS) was an incredible, empowering experience . . . . during the salons I had the opportunity to interact with the symposium attendees on a more intimate level and discuss these issues in detail. The salons were the highlight of the entire event for me; this unique format allowed me to learn about the specific experiences of other women in STEM and brainstorm ideas for solutions to problems. It was also very empowering for me, a young graduate student, to be able to contribute to discussions in this small group setting and have my input valued by the other, more senior members of the group. This symposium provided me with a wonderful opportunity to network with female mentors and also to be a mentor to younger, undergraduate students.


Attending the Maria Mitchell Women of Science Symposium was a truly transformative experience for me. To be in a space filled with women and allies for women in the STEM field was honestly overwhelming at first. As an undergraduate, I am a beginner and I used to think that I needed to have more experience or education before I could help facilitate change within the STEM community. After being a part of this conference, I am now in touch with my personal power and I was shown that advocates need to be at every level. I no longer feel the need to wait to start doing outreach, and I have already started working with a science teacher (remotely).

Many of 2018’s attendees, speakers, and panelists will be with us in attendance so we hope you can join us for this important and ongoing conversation as we make sure we support and find ways to bring everyone to the STEM table!


JNLF

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The Ancient Vine

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 27, 2025
This is what our landscaper for MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House this is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 19, 2025
May 27. {1857} There is this great difference between Niagara and other wonders of the world, that is you get no idea from descriptions or even from paintings. Of the Mammoth Cave you have a conception from what you are told, of the Natural Bridge you get really a truthful impression from a picture. But Cave and Bridge are in still life, Niagara is all activity and change. No picture gives you the varying form of the water of the change of color; no description conveys to your mind the ceaseless roar. So too the ocean must be unrepresentable to those who have not looked upon it. Maria Mitchell would tour the Mammoth Cave and the Natural Bridge during her trip to the southern United States as Prudence Swift’s chaperone – I have written of these travels and Prudence before. Niagara Falls is a place she likely saw on her way to visit her younger sister Phebe Mitchell Kendall, who once lived with her husband in Pennsylvania. I was a bit surprised that she feels the way she does about the Cave and Bridge being well-represented by images but I do kind of se her point. But Niagara, the ocean, any moving body of water – she is right. You don’t fully comprehend it until you hear it, touch and taste it, see its colors, and feel it splash, sprinkle, or mist across your face. Niagara certainly mists across your face – sort of like a breezy day at the beach and the salt mist that slowly builds across your face and coats the beach grass so that it shimmers in the sunlight. JNLF

Lily of the Valley

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 12, 2025
I have been watching it. Waiting. Today, I was rewarded with the scent as they have now started to open. From late fall, all through the winter and early spring, there is a very large patch of dirt with traces of roots and purple-like portions of some sort of plant. Then, they slowly start to send their shoots forth – up from that dusty pile of dirt come little greenish pips that become the leaves. Then, you start to see the stems tightened against the leaves and then lovely chartreuse buds are visible that then turn to white and slowly open from top to bottom. As soon as they star to open, I wait. Knowing that one morning I will walk by soon and then I will get a delicious waft of Lily of the Valley. I have written about this patch at the Mitchell House before. I have always been fascinated by the fact that these grow in full sun – they have no shade whatsoever. And this patch is old. I’m not sure how old – I do not think late nineteenth century but possibly – or maybe very early twentieth century. We have one or two images in the collection from the early 1900s but one does not show the ground, and the other not so much either. I also think this is one of the earliest flowering patches of Lily of the Valley on island – let me know if you’ve seen others this early. And in FULL sun to boot! But in any case, today was the day – May 5, 2025 – that I got the first waft. Saturday when I was here, they were not ready yet. But now, they are! And when I smell it, I know why it was my mother-in-law’s favorite flower. JNLF
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