Women’s History Month

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • Mar 03, 2014

Yes!! It is Women’s History Month for the ENTIRE month of March. I encourage you to learn one fact about an important woman in your community. Here is one for you – did you know that the first American born female to receive a medical degree was born and raised on Nantucket? Her name: Lydia Folger Fowler (1822 – 1879) and she specialized in gynecology and working with women and children. Just four years younger than Maria Mitchell, I am sure they knew one another, possibly went to school with one another, and Lydia may have even attended William Mitchell’s school, but that is just a guess as we have no records from his private school.



For the past eight months or so, I have been writing for “Nantucket Chronicle,” an online magazine – http://www.nantucketchronicle.com/soundings/nantucket-nation-nantucket. My column is called “The Nation of Nantucket” and there you will find several articles on island women called “Daring Daughters.” Take a look.


JNLF

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By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger 25 Mar, 2024
I have a thing for lichens and mosses. For a curator, of a historic house museum and one who also does stone monument conservation, probably not something you would think but. They are little microcosms of life full or all sorts of tiny things – and a small feast for birds looking for what they hold (insects). I am not here to identify this for you. I am here to have you appreciate its beauty. This large and lovely piece I found at the Coffin School on Winter Street laying on the brick path just before the front portico. To better appreciate it in a photograph, I put it up (temporarily) on one of the marble footings of the Coffin School’s columns. It is a stunner. Maria Mitchell took daily nature walks and was a naturalist as well. Her father, William, led daily nature walks for his students. It highlights the importance of observing things that you also might think do not matter, like this lichen. Next time you are our and about, try and look closely at how beautiful it is and how many chickadees might be clinging to the lichen and moss on a fence or the side of a house as they mine it for goodies! JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger 18 Mar, 2024
March 21. {1855} I have held to tears just behind my eyelids for a month, not being able to cry because of the danger of affecting mother and being ready to do so, at every moment. I felt when this year came in, a sinking of the heart, as if it had more duties for me, than I could well go through with. I did not think of the many trials to which in less than three months I must be subjected. Maria started off 1855 with heartache and fear. Several of her close friends died – two of them within four days of one another. Her mother’ Lydia, in failing health went through a very serious bout which caused Maria “great anxiety” as she served as her nurse and caregiver. Happily, Lydia made it through though her health continued to decline over many years. I assume she may have had some form of dementia or possibly even Parkinson’s Disease or perhaps a stroke to start that then kept her in a state of deterioration as years went on. But those things were not as defined, or in some cases, well known or understood then. Lydia would die in 1861, so her family’s care of her, especially Maria’s, must have been some help in keeping her with them. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger 11 Mar, 2024
I have posted this during Women’s History Month before but because it is March and again Women’s History Month, I think it’s worth repeating. It’s clever and helps to tell an important story in women’s history while giving it a bit of a 21st century twist. It comes via the National Women’s History Project. http://soomopublishing.com/suffrage/ JNLF
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