Woman in Science Part 27

As we read her admirable volumes on _Sacred and Legendary Art_ we can, as did a close friend of hers, see the enraptured author "kindle into enthusiasm amidst the gorgeous natural beauty, the antique memorials and the sacred Christian relics of Italy," and we are prepared to believe, with the same friend, that there was not "a cypress on the Roman hills, or a sunny vine overhanging the southern gardens, or a picture in those vast somber galleries of foreign palaces, or a catacomb spread out, vast and dark, under the martyr churches of the City of the Seven Hills, which was not a.s.sociated with some vivid flashes of her intellect and imagination." And we can also understand how "the strange, mystic symbolism of the early mosaics was a familiar language to her," and why she should experience special delight when she found herself "on the polished marble of the Lateran floor or under the gorgeously somber tribune of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, reading off the quaint emblems or expounding the pious thoughts of more than a thousand years ago."[219]

It is gratifying to know that Queen Victoria recognized the surpa.s.sing merits of this n.o.ble woman by placing her on the civil list, and that our own Longfellow was able to say of her masterpiece, _Sacred and Legendary Art_, "It most amply supplies the cravings of the religious sentiment of the spiritual nature within."

A countrywoman of Mrs. Jameson and her contemporary, who also deserves an honorable place in the literature of archaeology, is Louise Twining.

Although inferior in intellectual attainments and literary activity to the accomplished author of _Sacred and Legendary Art_, her two works on _Types and Figures of the Bible Ill.u.s.trated by Art_ and _Symbols and Emblems of Early Mediaeval Christian Art_ have given her a well-deserved reputation on the Continent as well as in the British Isles. The latter volume Mrs. Jameson herself declares in her _Legends of the Madonna_ to be "certainly the most complete and useful book of the kind which I know of."

A third woman who has won fame for her s.e.x in the island kingdom in the domain of archeology is Miss Margaret Stotes. Her activities, however, have been chiefly confined to the antiquities of Ireland, on which she is a recognized authority.

The notable part she took in editing Lord Dunraven's great work, _Notes on Irish Architecture_, established her reputation on a firm basis.

Among her other important works are _Early Christian Art in Ireland_ and _Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language_, chiefly collected and drawn by George Petrie, one of the annual volumes of the Royal Historical and Archaeological a.s.sociation of Ireland. This work has justly been described as an epoch-making contribution to Christian epigraphy and to our rapidly developing knowledge of Keltic language and literature. The learned Dr. Krauss, than whom there is no more competent judge, in referring to this splendid performance, does not hesitate to affirm, "No man could have done better than this brave college girl, whom I would wish to greet across the Channel with a cordial _Macte virtute_."

The women archaeologists so far mentioned, with the exception of Queen Caroline Murat, were conspicuous as writers rather than active investigators in the field. There have been, however, quite a number who have won distinction as "archaeologists of the spade"--women who, either alone or with their husbands, have superintended excavations in different lands, which have yielded results of untold scientific value.

Among the most conspicuous of these are Mme. Sophia Schliemann, Mme.

Dieulafoy and the enterprising Yankee girl, Miss Harriet A. Boyd.

Of these the first named is the wife of the late Dr. Henry Schliemann, who immortalized himself by his famous excavations at Troy, Tiryns and Mycenae--enterprises which solved for us the great problem of nearly thirty centuries and demonstrated in the most startling manner "the truth of the foundations on which was framed the poetical conception that has for thousands of years called forth the enchanted delight of the educated world." During his meteoric career as an archaeologist, Schliemann was able to realize the dreams of his youth, and succeeded in unveiling the mystery that had so long hung over Sacred Ilios, and to give the heroes of the Iliad a local habitation on the rediscovered Plain of Troy. And his glorious achievements we must credit largely to that brave and devoted woman--his wife--who was ever at his side to share in his trials and labors and to raise his drooping spirits in hours of depression, or when hostile criticism treated him as a visionary in the pursuit of a chimera.

Mrs. Schliemann is a Greek lady who was born and bred under the shadow of the Acropolis and a worthy descendant of those proud Athenian women who wore the golden gra.s.shopper in their hair as a sign that they were natives of the City of the Violet Crown. She was not only dowered with intellectual gifts of a high order, but she was also her husband's most congenial companion and sympathetic friend in all his literary work, while she was his very right hand in those glorious enterprises at Hissarlik and Mycenae, which secured for both of them undying fame.

Dr. Schliemann was the first to attest the never-failing a.s.sistance which he received from this n.o.ble woman who, as he informs us, was "a warm admirer of Homer" and "with glad enthusiasm" joined her husband in executing the great work which he had conceived in his early boyhood.

Usually they worked together, but at times Mrs. Schliemann superintended a gang of laborers at one spot while the Doctor was occupied at another in the immediate vicinity. Thus it was she who excavated the heroic tumulus of Batieia in the Troad--that Batieia who, according to Homer, was a queen of the Amazons and undertook a campaign against Troy.[220]

Mme. Jane Dieulafoy is noted as the collaborator of her husband, Marcel Dieulafoy, in the important archaeological mission to Persia that was entrusted to him by the French government. The results of this mission, in which Mme. Dieulafoy had a conspicuous part, were published in Paris in 1884 in five octavo volumes.

It was during this expedition to the ancient empire of Cyrus and Artaxerxes that this indefatigable couple became interested in the ruins of Susa, the ancient capital of the Persian kings. On their return to France they succeeded in securing money and supplies for conducting excavations among these ruins which, in the end, yielded results which were, in some respects, as important as those which rewarded the labors of the Schliemanns in Greece and Asia Minor.

So completely had Susa--the City of the Lilies--been buried and forgotten for nearly two thousand years that even its site was almost as much a matter of dispute as was that of ancient Troy. And yet it was one of the greatest and richest cities of antiquity--the city of Esther and Daniel, the city of the mighty a.s.suerus who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces--the city where the great Alexander celebrated his nuptials with Statira, the daughter of Darius, with a magnificent festival at which, according to Plutarch, "there were no fewer than nine thousand guests, to each of which he gave a golden cup for the libations."

In December, 1884, the two brave and venturesome explorers were on their way to Susa with high hopes, but not without a full knowledge of the difficulties and dangers that they would have to confront among the fanatical nomads of Arabistan, where the very name of Christian inspires rage and horror. It meant, as Mme. Dieulafoy herself tells us, "to cross the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the deserts of Elam three times in less than a year; to pa.s.s whole weeks without undressing; to sleep on the bare ground; to struggle nights and days against robbers and thieves; to cross rivers without a bridge; to suffer heat, rain, cold, mists, fever, fatigue, hunger, thirst, the stings of divers insects; to lead this hard and perilous existence without being guided by any interest other than the glory of one's country."[221]

In spite, however, of all the opposition which they encountered among the fanatical Mussulmans of Arabistan and of the dreadful sufferings incident to living in a desert where it was at times impossible to secure the necessaries of life, their mission was successful, and their account of their finds in the ancient capital of Elam was as thrilling in its way as anything reported of the excavations at Troy or Pompeii.

Their splendid collection of specimens of ancient Persian art and architecture, now on exhibition in the Museum of the Louvre, testifies to the successful issue of their expedition and to their indomitable energy in conducting researches under the most untoward conditions.[222] So highly did the French government value the part Mme. Dieulafoy had taken in this arduous enterprise that it conferred on her a distinction rarely awarded to a woman for scientific work--that of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

As an archaeologist, the gifted and energetic American woman, Miss Harriet Boyd--now Mrs. C. H. Hawes--has achieved an international reputation for her remarkable excavations in the island of Crete. She is a frequent contributor to archaeological journals; but it is upon her splendid work in the field that her fame will ultimately rest.

Her first work of importance was undertaken as Fellow of the American School of Cla.s.sical Studies at Athens. This was in 1900, and the field of her investigations was the Isthmus of Hierapetra in Crete. Here she excavated numerous tombs and houses of the early Geometric Period, _circa_ 900 B.C., and paved the way for those brilliant discoveries which rewarded her labors during the following three years.

The investigations conducted during these three years under Miss Boyd's directions yielded results of transcendent value. a.s.sisted by three young American women--the Misses B. E. Wheeler, Blanche E. Williams, and Edith H. Hall--she superintended the work of more than a hundred native employees whom she had on her payroll. By good fortune in the choice of a site for excavation and by well-directed efforts she was soon able to unearth one of the oldest of Cretan cities and to expose to view the ruins of what was probably one of the ninety cities which Homer tells us in his Odyssey graced the land of Crete--"a fair land and a rich, in the midst of a wine-dark sea."

So remarkable were the finds in this long-buried Minoan town and so well preserved are its general features that it has justly been called the Cretan Pompeii. It antedates by long centuries the oldest cities of Greece and was a flouris.h.i.+ng center of commerce ages before the heroes of the Iliad battled on the plains of Troy.

It is not too much to say that the extraordinary discoveries made by this enterprising Yankee girl at Gournia, no less than those made by British and Italian archaeologists at Knossos and Phaestos, have completely revolutionized our ideas respecting the state of culture of the inhabitants of Crete during the second and third millenia before the Christian era. They have thrown a flood of light on the origins of Mediterranean culture, and have, at the same time, supplied material for a study of European civilization that was before entirely wanting.

An enduring monument to Miss Boyd's ability as an archaeologist is her notable volume containing an account of her excavations at Gournia, Vasilike and other prehistoric sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra. It will bear comparison with any similar productions by the Schliemanns or the Dieulafoys. A later work on _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, which she wrote in collaboration with her husband, Mr. C. H. Hawes, is also a production of recognized merit. As a study on the origin of Greek civilization it opens up many new vistas in pre-history and illumines many questions that were before involved in mystery.

Besides Mrs. Hawes, three other American women have achieved marked distinction by their archaeological researches. These are Mrs. Sarah Yorke Stevenson, Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia Nuttall.

Mrs. Stevenson has long been identified with the progress of archaeological research, especially with that in Egypt and the Mediterranean. A prominent member of many learned societies, she is likewise a writer and lecturer of note. She enjoys the distinction of being the first woman whose name appears as a lecturer on the calendar of the University of Harvard. In acknowledgment of her scholarly ability and eminent services in the development of its Department of Archaeology, the University of Pennsylvania has conferred upon her the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

That American women have not been behind their sisters in Europe in their enthusiasm for archaeological investigation is evinced by the researches and writings of Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, both of whom enjoy an international reputation in the learned world.

Miss Fletcher's chosen field of labor has been in ethnology and anthropology. Her studies of the folk lore and the manners and customs of various tribes of North American Indians have a distinct and permanent value, while those of her contributions which have been published by the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution and the Bureau of Ethnology--contributions based on personal knowledge of a long residence among the tribes she writes about--show that she has exceptional talent for the branches of archaeology to which she has devoted many years of earnest and successful study.

Mrs. Nuttall is the daughter of an American mother and an English father. Thanks to the care that was bestowed on her education by her parents and to her long residence in the different countries of Europe, she is proficient in seven languages. This knowledge of tongues has been of inestimable advantage to her in her researches in European libraries and in those historical and archaeological investigations which have rendered her famous. She has devoted special attention to the early history, languages, religions and calendar systems of the primitive inhabitants of Mexico and Central America, in all of which she is a recognized authority.

When, some years ago, the mysterious ruins of Mexico began to attract the special attention of archaeologists, Mrs. Nuttall was selected by the University of California as the field director of the commission which it sent to pursue archaeological researches in this Egypt of the New World. A more competent or a more enthusiastic director could not have been chosen. Her finds in the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacan and elsewhere in our sister republic were especially important. In recognition of her achievements President Porfirio Diaz nominated Mrs. Nuttall honorary professor in the Mexican National Museum. She was also offered the position of curator of the archaeological Museum of Mexico; but this office she declined. She holds members.h.i.+p in a large number of learned societies in America and Europe and is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines on historical and archaeological subjects. She has had the good fortune to discover a number of important ma.n.u.scripts ill.u.s.trating the early history of Mexico. Chief among these are a Hispano-American ma.n.u.script which she dug out of one of the libraries of Madrid and another which was found in a private collection in England and reproduced in facsimile in this country. In honor of its fair discoverer it is now known as the Codex Nuttall, and is regarded by experts as one of the most precious records of ancient Mexico.

What is probably Mrs. Nuttall's most valuable contribution to archaeological science is her erudite work ent.i.tled _The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations_. It is a comparative research based on a study of the ancient Mexican, religious, sociological and calendar systems, and represents thirteen years of a.s.siduous labor. It is a worthy monument to the scientific ability of this gifted Americanist, and one which brilliantly illumines some of the most controverted points of comparative archaeology.

The Nestor of women archaeologists is Donna Ersilia Caetani-Bovatelli--the daughter of the famous Dante scholar, the late Duke Don Michel Angelo Caetani-Sermonetta. Since the days of Boniface VIII, whom Dante scornfully denounced as _lo principe de' Pharisei_, the family of the Caetani has been one of the most ill.u.s.trious of the Roman n.o.bility, and is to-day ranked with those of the Colonna and Orsini.

Besides his thorough knowledge of Dante, whose _Divina Commedia_ he regarded as the great artistic production of the human mind--a work which he knew by heart--the Duke of Sermonetta was deeply versed in philology and archaeology. No one was more familiar with the history and antiquities of Rome than he was, nor a greater friend and patron of scholars of every nationality. The Palazzo Caetani was the resort of not only the savants of Rome, but also and especially of those who gathered from all quarters of the world to study the rich collections of antiquities for which the Eternal City is so famous. Here the ablest authorities in history and archaeology discussed the latest discoveries among the ruins of Greece and Asia Minor, and the most recent finds in the Forum or amidst the crumbling ruins of the palaces of the Caesars.

Having such a father and brought up in such an environment it is not surprising that Donna Ersilia acquired at an early age that taste for archaeology which was, as events proved, to const.i.tute the chief occupation of her long and busy life. Having enjoyed and studied literature and the languages under the best masters in Rome, she was thoroughly prepared for the work of deciphering Greek and Latin inscriptions and for an intelligent study of the ancient monuments of Italy and h.e.l.las.

Her learned countryman, A. de Gubernatis, a.s.sures us that she has such a thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek that she writes both with ease and elegance, and that she is endowed with an admirable memory for philology and archaeology. Besides being a mistress of several modern languages, she is also familiar with Sanscrit.

Since the death of her husband, in 1879, she has devoted all her time, outside of that given to the care and education of her children, to the pursuit of cla.s.sical archaeology, in which she has long been regarded as an authority of the first order. Her salon, unlike those of the frivolous leaders of high life, has for many years been the favorite rendezvous in Rome of learned men and women from every clime. Here were seen the noted historians Gregorovius, Theodore Mommsen, and Giovanni Battista de Rossi, the ill.u.s.trious founder of Christian archaeology. Here the representatives of the French, German and American schools of archaeology meet to exchange views on their favorite science and to find inspiration in the knowledge and enthusiasm of their gifted hostess, who always takes an active part in their recondite discussions, and never fails to contribute her share to these meetings, which have contributed so much toward the advancement of science and the history of antiquity.

Whether the discussion turn on the deciphering of an ancient text, the inscription of a monument or a recently excavated sarcophagus, Donna Ersilia's opinion is eagerly sought, and her judgment is generally unerring.

This cultured and erudite daughter of sunny Italy has been a prolific writer on her favorite branch of research. Besides contributing to such publications as the _Nuova Antologia_ and the bulletins of the archaeological commissions in Rome, she has found time to prepare for the press a number of volumes of the highest value on divers questions of Roman and Greek archaeology.

It is interesting, in this connection, to note the fact that, after Mme.

Curie had been refused admittance into the French Academy, one of the members of this inst.i.tution, who had voted against her on the ground that she was a woman, had occasion to attend a meeting of the Academy of the Lincei in Rome, an a.s.sociation which plays the same role in Italy as does the French Academy in France, and found, to his astonishment, that the dean of the department of archaeology, as well as the presiding officer of some of the most important meetings of the academy, was a woman. She was no other than Donna Ersilia Caetani-Bovatelli, the learned and gracious scion of an honored race. So taken aback was the Gallic opponent of _feminisme_ that he could but exclaim: "_Diable!_ they order things differently in Italy from what we do in _la belle France_."

Considering their attainments and achievements, the two women who occupy the highest place as archaeologists in the English-speaking world are Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. They are the twin daughters of the Rev. John Smith, an English clergyman, and have long enjoyed an enviable reputation among Scriptural scholars and Orientalists.

During their youth they had the advantage of instruction under the best masters, and, among other things, acquired a wide knowledge of the modern and cla.s.sical languages. Subsequent study and frequent visits to Greece and the Orient made them proficient in modern Greek, Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. Becoming interested in the search for ancient ma.n.u.scripts, they resolved to make the long and arduous journey to the Greek convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai.

In the latter part of January, 1892, these two brave and enterprising women left Suez for their destination in the heart of the Arabian desert. They were accompanied only by their dragoman and Bedouin servants. Eleven camels carried the two travelers, their baggage, tents and provisions for fifty days. They had laid in supplies not only for the two or three weeks they were to spend on the way to and from Sinai, but also for the month they expected to remain at the Convent of St.

Catherine.

Arriving at the end of their journey, they were most cordially received by the monks, who afforded them every facility for examining the treasures of their unique and venerable library. They immediately set to work, and before they left the room in which the ma.n.u.scripts were preserved they had made one of the most remarkable finds of the century.

For, in closely inspecting a dirty, forbidding old ma.n.u.script whose leaves had probably not been turned for centuries, they discovered a palimpsest, of which the upper writing contained the biographies of women saints, while that beneath proved to be one of the earliest copies of the Syriac Gospels, if not the very earliest in existence.

No find since the celebrated discovery by Tischendorf of the Sinaitic Codex, in the same convent nearly fifty years before, ever excited such interest among Scriptural scholars or was hailed with greater rejoicings. It was by all Biblical students regarded as an invaluable contribution to Scriptural literature, and as a find which "has doubled our sources of knowledge of the darkest corner of New Testament criticism." To distinguish it from the _Codex Sinaiticus_, the precious ma.n.u.script brought to light by Mrs. Lewis has been very appropriately named after the fortunate discoverer, and will hereafter be known as the Codex Ludovicus.[223]

Another find of rare importance made by the gifted twin sisters was a Palestinian Syriac lectionary similar to the hitherto unique copy in the Library of the Vatican. A special interest attaches to this lectionary from the fact that it is written in the language that was most probably spoken by our Lord.

Among other notable discoveries of Mrs. Lewis and her sister during the four visits[224] which they made to Mt. Sinai and Palestine between the years 1892 and 1897 were a number of ma.n.u.scripts in Arabic and a portion of the original Hebrew ma.n.u.script of Ecclesiastes which was written about 200 B.C. Previously the oldest copies of this book of the Old Testament were the Greek and Syriac versions.

What is specially remarkable about the discoveries made by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson is that they were able to make so many valuable finds after the convent library at Mt. Sinai had been so frequently examined by previous scholars. The indefatigable Tischendorf made three visits to this library and had but one phenomenal success. But neither "he nor any of the other wandering scholars who have visited the convent attained,"

as has been well said, "to a t.i.the of the acquaintance with its treasures which these energetic ladies possess."

But more remarkable than the mere discovery of so many invaluable ma.n.u.scripts, which was, of course, an extraordinary achievement, is the fact that these ma.n.u.scripts, whether in Syriac, Arabic or Hebrew, have been translated, annotated and edited by these same scholarly women.

Already more than a score of volumes have come from their prolific pens, all evincing the keenest critical ac.u.men and the highest order of Biblical and archaeological scholars.h.i.+p. The reader who desires a popular account of their famous discoveries should by all means read Mrs.

Gibson's entertaining volume, _How the Codex Was Found_, and Mrs. Lewis'

charming little work ent.i.tled, _In the Shadow of Sinai_. As to those men--and the species is yet far from extinct--who still doubt the capacity of women for the higher kinds of intellectual effort, let them glance at the pages of the numerous volumes given to the press by these richly dowered women under the captions of _Studia Sinaitica_ and _Horae Semiticae_; and, if they are able to comprehend the evidence before them, they will be forced to admit that the long-imagined difference between the intellectual powers of men and women is one of fancy and not one of reality.[225]