Mary Somerville

This portrait hold great significance in our collection at RAMM, because its companion piece currently resides in the National Portrait Gallery. The lithograph of Mary Somerville’s portrait resides at the gallery, most likely due to her prestige as a scientific scholar and influential writer. She studied mathematics from a young age against her father’s wishes and published acclaimed academic studies in 1826, 1831, 1834, and 1838. Given her accomplishments, she was granted membership to the Royal Astronomical Society as one of the first of two women (along with Caroline Herschel) to be welcomed into the society.