Contributions to Botany, the Female Science, by Two Eighteenth-Century Women Technical Communicators

Abstract

This article focuses on the botanical publications of two eighteenthcentury English women writers: Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal (l737-1739) and Priscilla Bell Wakefield's An Introduction to Botany (1796). A brief rhetorical description and analysis of these books indicates that they contribute several new perspectives and techniques to the historical tradition of botanical writing and illustrating, as well as exhibit many of today's techniques for effective technical communication. Several suggestions are offered for further research directions to establish the significance of these writers within the conceptual framework of the feminine "green" tradition.