School of Continuing and Professional Studies Faculty Publications
Title
“Not merely wifely devotion”: Collaborating in the Construction of Science at Terling Place
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2012
Abstract
In this chapter I critique the literary construction of the scientific practice of John Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh as a solitary pursuit within a domain separated from family life, and I analyze, instead, the science of his home, Terling Place, as a collaboration with his wife Evelyn Strutt, Baroness Rayleigh. As opposed to judging the character of their marital collaboration anachronistically through a professional lens, I analyze Terling science within the context of late-Victorian country-house society characterized by an aristocratic, evangelical-Anglican orientation. This case demonstrates how collaboration can be an unstable construct reliant upon the meanings imbued by the historical subjects and their discursive representations.
Recommended Citation
Donald L. Opitz. "“Not merely wifely devotion”: Collaborating in the Construction of Science at Terling Place" For Better or For Worse? Collaborative Couples in the Sciences (online ed). Ed. Annette Lykknes, Donald L. Opitz, Brigitte Van Tiggelen. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2012. 33-56.