Alexander's Downfall and Elizabeth's Legacy

This is an IiHart podcast Guaranteed human. Living with a rare autoimmune condition brings uncertainty, but it can also create community. In season six of Untold Stories, Life with a severe autoimmune coondition, they go beyond MG and CIDP, as host Martine Hackett welcomes stories from other conditions like myositis and IGN into the conversation. Untold Stories is produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenics. Listen to Untold Stories, Life with a severe Autoimmune condition on the iHart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts Hey everybody, we are getting ready to go on a trip. We're not packed yet, but our brains definitely are because we have a trip to Bajamar on the horizon. and it's kind of all I can think about. I'm so excited about the food. There are amazing restaurants and lounges there that I'm gonna sample everything I possibly can. I'm going to gaze into the water and mostly I am gonna watch the daily fllamingo parade which might be the thing I'm most excited about. There's also an incredible spa and I know Tracy's going to be takaking advantage of that. There is excited and then there is Bahamar excited. Start planning at bahamar. comot Alienwar's Back to schoolchool event is the perfect time to score top gaming gear with incredible features and advanced engineering to go beyond performance Start your Alienware journey with the Alienware fifteen gaming laptop featuring Intel core processors, game, live stream and multitask for hours on end. Pair your incredibly smooth gaming experience with immersive visuals and sound by saving on sleek alienware monitors, headsets and more. This limited time sale awaits you now at alienware dot com slash deals The oldld gaze are back with Silver Linings, their lovable podcast from Iheart's Ruby Studio in partnership with VV Healthcare. Robert, Mick, Bill and Jessse strut back down memory Lane for season two, sharing lessons on life, love, and loss. These are the kind of insights that only come from experience. So tune in to Silver Linings with the oldld Gazayse on the Iheart Radio app casts or wherever you get your podcasts Snoring, gasping for air during sleep, daytime sleepiness. I'm Shquil O'Neill and this shouldn't be anybody's experience. As your doctor about Zbound to zepatyime, The first SZNOi FDA approved prescription medicine from moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity TZzbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zbound is approved as a two point five, five, seven point five, ten, twelve point five, or fifteen milligram injection. Zbound contains trizepetide and should not be used with other trizepotide containing products or any GLP one receptor agonist medicines It is not known if ZPBound is safe and effective for use in children Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had Medary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type two. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop step bound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. If you're nursing, pregnant, planant to be or taking birth control pills, taking Zbound with a sulfonyal urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar side effects include nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. callall one eight hundred five four five five nine sevven nine or visit zbound. liily d. com Welcome to Stuff You Miss in History Class, a production of Hart Radio Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and I'm Holly Fry A few weeks ago, I took a little trip to England. and while I was there, I took the train to Oxford and I visited the Ashmolean Museum They currently have an exhibit called in Bloom, How Plants Changed Our World And I really enjoyed that. And one of the things I saw in that exhibition was a facsimile of Elizabeth Blackwell's book A curious herbal. There's a longer title than that, which we will be reading later, I'm saving it. savoring the long title. So I knew this was a different Elizabeth Blackwell from the one we have covered on the show before. who became the first woman in the US to earn an MD in eighteen forty nine. Our episode on that Elizabeth Blackwell came out in twenty fourteen This Elizabeth Blackwell was born in London. More than a century before the American Dr. Blackwell and was known for her achievements as a botanical illustrator And if you read articles about Elizabeth Blackwell, including fairly recent ones, It is very possible to highly likely that you will get some incorrect details about who she was and where she was born Some of these errors actually date back to her own lifetime, and then they were repeated and embellished in the decades that followed. And one reason is that more than a decade into their marriage, Elizabeth's husband, Alexander, became infamous for reasons that we are going get into. People writing about him naturally wanted to include some details about his well known wife She had been born in Aberdeen, so people just assumed that she had too And eventually people found an Elizabeth from Aberdeen who seemed to be about the right age to have married Alexander. He had been baptized in seventeen oh nine. And this other person was Elizabeth Blate, who was a daughter of a merchant And she was baptized in seventeen oh seven, so their ages seemed to match up. That was the wrong Elizabeth Yeah, and I found the situation very confusing when I was researching this because there were two wildly different stories of who this person was. No explanation for the contradiction And most of the credit for correcting this information goes to Janet Styles Tyson, who completed a PhD thesis on Elizabeth Blackwell in twenty twenty one Tyson's thesis points out that there's really nothing to substantiate a marriage between Elizabeth Blattreat and Alexander Blackwell But there was an Elizabeth Simpson who married an Alexander Blackwell in Holboururn on october first of seventeen thirty three When she finished her thesis though, Tyson could not verify that these were the same Elizabeth and Alexander. As we're talking about today, those names, all the names involved, were common enough that it was within the realm of possibility that they could just be different people. But Then in twenty twenty two, Tyson was working on an essay to go into a new edition of Elizabeth Blackwell's hererbal. She was trying to personally examine as many copies of the book as she possibly could, and that took her to David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University The copy in that collection included a two page preface that had not been in any of the other copies that Tyson looked at And it was a preface that Blackwell had written herself and it was dated april twelfth, seventeen thirty nine In that preface, she said that she was the daughter of Leonard Simpson So Elizabeth Simpson was born in the city of London on april twenty third, sixteen ninety nine to Leonard and Alice Simpson tized on may fourth of that year The Simpsons lodged with a shoemaker who was also named Simpson, so that might have been their relative In this newly discovered preface, Blackwell said of herself, quote I from my very infancy showed an inclination to imitate pictures and to attempt drawing such things as pleased me. Whether this proceeded from the strong impressions made on my tender brain by the agreeable objects I was daily surrounded with, my father, Leonard Simpson, being a painter, O a genius born with me, I can't determine Sadly, Elizabeth did not get the benefit of much art instruction from her father who died when she was still very young. But as she got older, she developed a particular love for drawing and painting flowers. and for representing them in her needlework She was also very curious about the flowers and plants that she encountered out in the world, especially the ones that were growing in the wild But when she tried to look these plants up in books, she often found herself frustrated and dissatisfied And this was because in her words, the illustrations in those books were often, quote, too small and confused to be instructive As she grew up, Elizabeth Blackwell continued pursuing her childhood love of learning about, drawing, and painting plants and flowers Eventually, she started working on solving that problem of two small and cramped illustrations, embarking on a project of making full size depictions of plants with each picture on its own page It is possible that she was inspired by the work of Maria Sabillia Merian, who we have covered on the show before, and who published three volumes of flower engravings between sixteen seventy five and sixteen eighty. After Blackwell finished some samples of these full page flower drawings, she showed them to some gentlemen of her acquaintance who, in her words were quote Pleased to commend the performance However, she went on to say, quote, but this scene of pleasure was interrupted by some misfortunes deprived mr. Blackwell of all employment and so far reduced us that I found it necessary to consider what I could do towards supporting my family Her friends encouraged her to quote, make proposals for designing, engraving, and publishing by subscription, a set of prints of the physical plants which work they judged would be very useful and acceptable to the public So that mister Blackwell was, of course, her husband, Alexander Blackwell. They had gotten married in seventeen thirty three There are various stories floating around about the two of them having eloped in secret, but this seems to have been a fabrication that appeared in the early nineteenth century Alexander's birth date is unclear, but since he was baptized in seventeen oh nine, it is possible that he was at least a decade younger than Elizabeth Alexander was from a respectable family His father Thomas was a minister who served as moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, as well as a professor of Divinity and principple at Merichell College in Aberdeen Alexander had a brother who was also called Thomas, who was a classical scholar and historian and the author of multiple books Most sources about Alexander say that he had a university education and studied medicine in Leiden in the Netherlands, but there's no clear documentation of this anywhere And just no record of his ever earning a degree. As for the misfortunes which deprived Mr. Blackwell of all employment, some accounts say that Alexander was practicing medicine without qualifications to actually do so, and that after this raised suspicion, he and Elizabeth had to flee to London That doesn't really make sense though, since Elizabeth was from London and that is where they got married These accounts make it sound like the couple had to start over in a place that was new to them, but it seems like they were already in London when this supposed quackery allegation would have happened in Scotland The misfortunes that were connected to Alexander's work as a printer are easier to substantiate About three years before he and Elizabeth got married, he had started working as a corrector at a press belonging to a man named mister Wilkins And then after their marriage, Alexander decided to start his own press. And it's possible that his startup costs came from Elizabeth's dowry But the stationers guild had a monopoly on printing and a person had to complete an apprenticeship before they could become a printer on their own Alexander Blackwell had not gone through an apprenticeship and was not a member of the stationer' guuild, so he faced a lawsuit almost immediately On july tenth, seventeen thirty four, he appeared in court under charges that he quote exercised the art and mystery of a printer, not having served regular apprenticeship in the trade Alexander was fined and apparently he did not have the money to pay that fine Two months later, he was declared bankrupt According to some accounts, he spent two years in a debtor's prison, but the bankruptcy would have allowed him to avoid imprisonment Regardless of whether Alexander was imprisoned or not, after all of this happened, it fell to Elizabeth to try to provide for them, and we will get to that after a sponsor break Living with a rare autoimmune condition can bring a lot of uncertainty, but it can also bring people together in powerful ways. Tune in for seeason six of Untold stories, Life with a severe Autoimmune condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenics. This season, host Martine Hackett brings you fresh stories from people living with MG and CIDP and expands the conversation to people living with other rare conditions like myositis and IGAN Through their stories, you'll learn what it's like to participate in clinical trials seeking new treatments, how connection fuels hope, and how people can support one another along the way. Because living with a rare disease isn't about getting through it, it's about moving forward together. Listen to Untold stories, life with a severe autoimmune condition on the IiHart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Alrighty, there is excited and then there is vacation excited. and we are vacation excited right now because we have a trip planned to Baja Mar in Nassau. To be honest, I'm kind of mentally already checked in and I have a beautiful drink in my hand. What I love about this is that you can do it your way. There are three luxury hotels all in one place, the Refined Rosewood, the playfully hip SLS, or the stylish Grand Hyatt. So no matter what your vibe is, if it's relaxed, if it's glam, if it's kind of somewhere in between You're covered and then there is everything else. This is like an embarrassment of options. There are more than forty five restaurants, bars and lounges, incredible chefs, incredible drinks. I'm going to be all over that. There is a lot of great nightlife that you can get into, like the John Baptiste Jazz Club, which I am also very excited about If you are a family going to visit, there's a fifteen acre water park and what I am also excited about shark and sea turtle encounters, brring them on and don't even get me started about the daily Flamingo parade. If you're into sporty stuff, all there. There is a golf course, tennis, pickleball, anything you can think of. Tracy's going spend a lot of time at the spa and we are going to spend a lot of time enjoying ourselves. There's excited and then there is Baha Mar vacation exxcited Start planning your perfect getaway at Bahamar. com You're considering getting a home security system, But you want something that fits your space. Well, with ADT Blue, it's easy to customize a system that's right for you and set it up yourself. Just pick the kit and monitoring plan that makes sense for your home. Let's say you're worried about package theft. The ADT plus app can walk you through setting up a new doorbell camera kit. Once it's installed, ADT Pros can help you keep tabs on it twenty four seven Or you can manage it yourself from the ADT plus app. There are no long term contracts so you can change your monitoring plan whenever you want. The flexibility doesn't end there. You can add to your system as you need to with things like extra cameras or motion sensors. Some life decisions are hard, but thanks to ADT Blue, you can DIY trusted ADT home security in a snap to ADt. com slash Blu to build your system today. And to find out more about home prrotection, check out a new episode of Grown Up Stuff with security expert Joe Maza out now on the iHart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts Guess who's back in the house The Old Gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from IiHart's Ruby Studio in partnership with VV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert, McBill, and Jessse have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane, navigating life loveo, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you All Sass, zero filter and decades of perspective from four friends proving that queer joy only gets better with age on the podcast that never gets old. Listen to Silver Linings available on the iHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Dude, my kid loves Marvel Spider Man now. No way. How? Lingo kids, They have Spider Man themed activities. It's completely safe, like if someone took our comics and made them perfect for a four year old. I still hang on to my old collection. Does it have Disney Moana two? My daughter is obsessed. Disney Moana, Frozen Zoopia, It's all in there. I'm downloading this right now. Full of fun activities inspired by beloved stories from Disney and more. Lingo Kids is where little ones discover more about favorite characters And maybe yours too Everything kids love. Download it for free ell's plan of supporting her family and paying off her husband's debts by publishing prints of medicinal plants required her to develop a whole network of contacts and supporters in the world of English, medicine, alchemy, and botany In August of seventeen thirty five, physician Alexander Stewart wrote a letter of introduction to Sir Hans Sloan, president of the Royal Society, describing Blackwell as the quote niece of Sir William Simpson, one of the barons of the Exchequer whom you know, and first cousin to My Lady Cook Winford, whom you also know This letter described Blackwell as a, quote, very ingenious person and said she was embarking on a project to create illustrations of about five hundred medicinal plants and have them engraved It also said that she already had the support of Isaac Rand, director of the Apothecary' Physic Garden now known as Chelsea Physic Garden, where the worshipful society of apothecaries grew their medicinal plants Rand had helped Blackwell develop the proposal for this project, which was also being provided for Sloan to review along with the letter of introduction Blackwell also had the support of Dr. Richard Meade, fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians. And Thomas Pellllet, president of the Royal College of Physicians Her first prints of these plants were just the illustrations of the plants labeled with their names. But eventually she also started including descriptive text about the plants and their uses and preparations A major source of that text was the seventeen twenty one edition of the Dispensatory of the Royal College of Physicians Joseph Miller, master of the Wshipful Society of Apothecaries, was also on board with Blackwell's project And his Botanicaafinionale or a compendious herbal, giving an account of all such plants as are now used in the practice of physics. was another major source for the descriptive text Neither Botanicaafinionale nor the Dpensatory was illustrated. so the idea was to bring all of this information under one cover, making the illustrations more useful to people who didn't already have one of these other texts In seventeen thirty six, Blackwell either by herself or with Alexander since it's not totally clear whether he was imprisoned or not. Rnted lodgings at Four Swan Wall was across the street from the physic Garden, and that gave Blackwell easy access to the plants so that she could draw them from life On april twenty seventh of that same year, her first child, a son named William, was baptized Tragically, William died a few days later and was buried at Sain.t Luke's Chelsea on may third This was very sadly not the family's only loss in an era of widespread child mortality. A daughter named Blanche was born in seventeen thirty seven and died the following year. Mackwell started selling flower prints to subscribers through printer Samuel Harding in seventeen thirty seven. And these serialized sets of pages were called fascicules, and uncolored fascicules cost a shilling each Colored versions, which Blackwell hand colored herself after printing cost two shillings She produced a fascule of four prints a week every week for one hundred and fifty weeks, and that gave her an ongoing source of steady income as she was working on this project Her subscribers could collate all the fascicules and have them bound once they were complete, which means there is a lot of variation among the more than one hundred bound volumes that exist in libraries and museum collections today Most of these are in the UK, Western Europe, and North America. Four illustrations a week is a lot, especially considering that Blackwell didn't really take breaks for things like pregnancy or giving birth or caring for a newborn or grieving the death of a child. She had to work really quickly. She focused on making sure the outlines were correct and then she did less shading if she was running out of time Her production schedule was also tied to what was growing or blooming at the apothecary's visit garden. She incorporated other research, but the plants that she could draw from life really took priority. And that meant there wasn't always a logical order to the fascicules or the bound copies that were made from them She wrote of these limitations, quote, I humbly hope my subscribers will show their goodness in pardoning these defects, and that my good friends who were anyways helpful to me in carrying on this work, will accept my most hearty thanks If it should please God to give my life and health, I shall employ my leisure in finishing the plates, rectifying mistakes, and supplying defects that they may be more complete. Some accounts say that Blackwell's husband helped her with the text of the book including providing information about the medicinal uses for the plants or translating the plants' names into different languages Sometimes his work is described as happening from his cell in the debtor's prison It is not fully clear how involved he was in this part of this production since most of the text has a clear connection to the Royal College of Physicians Dispensatory and Joseph Miller's Botanicum officionale Alexander was definitely involved in the arrangements and contracts for getting the book printed, though. Under the doctrine of coverageure, married women in the UK did not have their own legal existence beyond that of their husband Alexander's signature is the one on formal agreements related to printing and distribution. Although there are also explicit acknowledgements that the work was Elizabeth's Blackwell likely also had some help with some of the steps that were required to produce these prints But she's generally recognized as creating a watercolor drawing of each plant And also hands coloring the printed pages for the subscribers that paid for them to be colored. She also either etched or engraved the plates that they were printed from. Engraving and etching are two different ways of preparing a plate for printing by incizing the design into the surface Those kinds of printing techniques are known as intalio printing That's in contrast to things like wood block printing that we've talked about on the show before, where the parts of the wood that are not part of the design are removed category of printing is known as relief printing Contemporary sources describe Blackwell's work using the terms engraving and etching almost interchangeably. But these are different techniques. Blackwell's illustrations appear to be etched while the pages containing explanatory text look like they were engraved Etching is also something Blackwell probably could have learned to do more easily than engraving because of the steps involved There are documents in which Blackwell mentions using a calligrapher for the explanatory text, so it's possible that she did the etchings for the illustrations while someone else engraved the calligraphy. Regardless, by illustrating the plants, making the plates, and coloring them, she was doing three different jobs that were more often handled by completely different people When Blackwell had finished one hundred and fifty sets of four illustrations in seventeen thirty nine Bookseller John Norse printed them as a complete two volume book under the title A curious herbal containing five hundred cuts of the most useful plants, which are now used in the practice of physics Egraved on folio copper plates after drawings taken from the lifeife by Elizabeth Blackwell, to which has added a short description of the plants and their common uses in physic that the is of course, spelled Y E, which I love Time The word curious had a lot of meanings that it does not really carry today, including made with care carefully worked out or accurate This is Blackwell's only known published work The printed volumes of the Curious hererbal included an endorsement that she had also printed alongside calls for subscribers dated october first, seventeen thirty five It read, quote, This undertaking was honored with the following public recommendation by the underwritten gentlemen We whose names are underwritten, having seen a considerable number of the drawings from which the plates are to be engraved And likewise some of the colored plants think it's a justice done to the public to declare our satisfaction with them, and our good opinion of the capacity of the undertaker This was followed by the names of nine men, five of them MDs They included some of the men that we have already mentioned. Richard Meade, Alexander Stewart, Joseph Miller, and Isaac Rand. Different copies of her books also contained an assortment of dedications to various learned men who had supported her work or helped her with it This herbal was one of the most comprehensive texts on medicinal plants that was available in Europe in the early mid eighteenth century. And it was the first major herbal to be published by a British woman It included plants from the Americas and Asia, places where England neither had or had previously had colonies Which meant there were a lot of plants that Europeans had never seen before included in it The fact that it was illustrated made it a useful reference for doctors, apothecaries and others who needed to gather and prepare their own plants, including women who wanted to grow medicinal plants in their kitchen gardens Herbals were also popular as literature, so Blackwell's readers also included laypeople who were able to afford something as expensive as a five hundred page book for their libraries While her book was widely praised, including being endorsed by the Royal College of Physicians There were critics who dismissed it for not including new information. While it was true that most of the text came from two well established references, neither of those books had been illustrated We will get to Elizabeth Blackwell's life after finishing her book after a sponsor break. Living with a rare autoimmune condition can bring a lot of uncertainty, but it can also bring people together in powerful ways. Tune in for season six of Untold stories, Life with a severe autoimmune condition, a Ruby Studio production in partartnership with Arenics. This season, host Martine Hackett brings you fresh stories from people living with MG and CIDP and expands the conversation to people living with other rare conditions, like myositis and IGAN Through their stories, you'll learn what it's like to participate in clinical trials seeking new treatments, how connection fuels hope, and how people can support one another along the way. Because living with a rare disease isn't about getting through it, it's about moving forward together. Listen to Untold stories, life with a severe autoimmune condition on the IiHart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Alrighty, there is excited and then there is vacation excited. and we are vacation excited right now because we have a trip planned to Baja Mar in Nassau. To be honest, I'm kind of mentally already checked in and I have a beautiful drink in my hand. What I love about this is that you can do it your way. There are three luxury hotels all in one place, the Reined Rosewood, the playfully hip SLS, or the stylish Grand Hyatt. So no matter what your vibe is, if it's relaxed, if it's glam, if it's kind ofwhere in between You're covered and then there is everything else. This is like an embarrassment of options. There are more than forty five restaurants, bars and lounges, incredible chefs, incredible drinks. I'm going to be all over that. There is a lot of great nightlife that you can get into like the John Baptiste Jazz Club, which I am also very excited about. If you are a family going to visit, there's a fifteen acre water park and what I am also excited about shark and sea turtle encounters brring them on and don't even get me started about the daily flamingo parade. If you're into sporty stuff, all there. There is a golf course, tennis, pickleball, anything you can think of. Tracy's going spend a lot of time at the spa and we are gonna to spend a lot of time enjoying ourselves. There's excited and then there is Baahaar vacation exxcited. Start planning your perfect getaway at bahamar dot com Guess who's back in the house The Old gays return for seeason two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from IiHart's Ruby Studio in partnership with VV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert, McBill, and Jessse have in store this time around. They stut back down memory lane, navigating life loveo, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you All S, zero filter, and decades of perspective from four friends proving that queer joy only gets better with age on the podcast that never gets old. Listen to Silver Linings available on the iHart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts Dude, my kid loves Marvel Spider Man now. No way. How? Lingo kids, they have Spider Man themed activities. It's completely safe, like if someone took our comics and made them perfect for a four year old. I still hang on to my old collection. Does it have Disney Moana two? My daughter is obsessed. Disney Moana, Frozen, Zoopia, It's all in there. I'm downloading this right now. Full of fun activities inspired by beloved stories from Disney and more Lingo Kids is where little ones discover more about favorite characters, and maybe yours too Everything kids love! Download it for free. Iibid you Peace, the rise and fall of the Frugal Gourmet is an independent documentary available at ibidupeeace dot com slash history. Use code history for twenty percent off. I don't know if you remember the Frugal Gourmet from the eighties and nineties on PBS, but it was very popular at my house and imagine my surprise to discover that there is a very complicated history underneath all of that pleasantness Watch it as a documentary feature film or go deep with the full five episode series, exclusively direct from the filmmaker at ibidupace. com slash history, code history for twenty percent off Forources are contradictory when it comes to Alexander Blackwell's debt, bankruptcy, possible imprisonment, and exactly how it was all affected by the publication of Elizabeth Blackwell's Curious hererbal Some say that the proceeds allowed Elizabeth to pay off Alexander's debts and get him out of prison. then he kept racking up new ones. One thing that is more clearly documented is that the Blackwells had to work to protect the copyright on Elizabeth's work And that by extension, they were protecting the income that they could earn from that work On march ninth of seventeen thirty eight, they filed a complaint in the Court of Chancery against eight named men and quote, diverse other persons for infringing on their copyright