Early Life in Newburyport

Abstract

On one of my shelves I have copies of three different American editions of Conversations on Chemistry, by Mrs. Jane Marcet (1). These had belonged to family members and a cousin in the early 1800’s. I had found them in the old family house in Newburyport, Massachusetts. One, published in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1930, is “the twelfth American Edition, from the last London edition….” The book consists of a series of animated and very instructive dialogues between “Mrs. B” and two young ladies, Emily and Caroline. At first Emily and Caroline were very skeptical about chemistry, but soon Mrs. B had their interest as they pursued the subject together. Mrs. B (Mrs. Marcet) explains in the preface that she attended a number of the famous popular lectures and demonstrations by Sir Humphrey Davy at the Royal Institution in London, but did not properly understand them until she had discussed them with a friend. She then decided to write a book to explain chemistry to other women.