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Eliza Wilbur

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eliza Wilbur
BornOctober 21, 1851
DiedMarch 31, 1930
Other namesEban Malcolm Sutcliffe
Alma materBatavia Female Seminary
Occupation(s)Astronomer, botanist, inventor
Known forHer patents included three for telescopes
Spouse(s)1. Thomas Basnett
2. Mathieu Souvielle

Eliza Madelina Wilbur Souvielle (October 21, 1851 – March 31, 1930[1]) was an American scientist, astronomer, botanist, inventor, author and publisher.[2]

Education, academia and publishing

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She studied at Batavia Female Seminary in New York and may have been the first female to lecture in science at Harvard University. She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and her work was published in magazines and newspapers including Scientific American and the New York Herald. She published Continuity (magazine).[3]

Personal life

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Wilbur was the third wife of Thomas Basnett and moved to Marabanong (a historic mansion in Jacksonville, Florida) in 1880. She invented a large astronomical telescope there. (In 1914, the house was sold to Eliza's cousin, Grace Wilbur Trout.)[3] After Basnett's death in 1886, she married Mathieu Souvielle, a throat and lung surgeon.

Pseudonymous writing

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She wrote Sequel to the Parliament of Religion about non-Western religions under the pseudonym Eban Malcolm Sutcliffe and The Ulyssiad (Dacosta Publishing Co. of Jacksonville, 1896), a biography of Ulysses Grant in verse.

Other interests

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She was active in the women's suffrage campaign, served as secretary for the Home for the Aged in Jacksonville for seven years, and was vice president of the Jacksonville Branch of the League of American Pen Women.[4] Her patents included three for telescopes.[4] She was also involved in efforts to engineer an airplane.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "Find A Grave Index". FamilySearch. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  2. ^ a b 3 amazing alarming or transforming scientists from Jacksonville May 20, 2013 Metro Jacksonville
  3. ^ a b Davis, Ennis (2022-03-16). "THE JAXSON | Six women's history sites in Jacksonville". Jacksonville Today. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  4. ^ a b Empire Point mansion has long history of strong Trout women by Leni Bessette and Louise Stanton Warren October 8, 2005 Florida Times-Union