As part of a $220,000 grant from Henry Luce Foundation, a team of archivists and librarians with the American Institute of Physics are working on a new initiative to identify the names of women scientists whose records only refer to them as someone’s spouse.
Led by archivist Elizabeth Wood and librarian Karina Cooper, the project seeks to update the captions of historical photos of physical scientists whose women subjects are listed as “Mrs. [Husband’s Name]” or “[Husband’s wife].” So far, the project team has identified 205 photos dated from the 1930s to the 1980s that contain women scientists with missing identification.
For their project, the researchers start by conducting a Google search of the husband’s name to find their Wikipedia page. If the scientist’s page does not have the name of their wife, or wives, the team then searches for obituaries or other historical articles that may list the scientist’s wife. If the team is able to properly identify the women subjects, they use that information to improve Wikipedia entries about physical scientists and their families.
“It’s critical that we represent a fuller and more accurate history of women’s participation in science,” said Trevor Owens, AIP’s chief research officer. “This initiative is a powerful example of how AIP’s research team is working to advance positive, lasting change across the scientific community.”