The Challenger Expedition: Exploring the Ocean’s Depths
By Erika Jones, published by National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 2022

On December 1872, HMS Challenger, especially modified to support a team of civilian scientists, set sail from Portsmouth, England, to begin a round-the-world journey, unique for the scale of its ambition and scope. The Challenger Expedition: Exploring the Ocean’s Depths tracks the paths of six objects associated with the expedition, including the Baillie sounding machine, a starfish, a photographic album, and HMS Challenger itself, to reveal the stories of the often hidden work, technologies, and international collaboration at the heart of this nineteenth-century scientific endeavor. Lavishly illustrated with objects from the National Maritime Museum and significant collections around the world, The Challenger Expedition is a fascinating tale of scientific breakthroughs, global trade networks, empire, and the legacy of the Challenger expedition on the modern study of oceanography.

Available from the National Maritime Museum and a range of booksellers in the US, UK, and the EU.

Women in the History of Science: A Sourcebook
Edited by Hannah Wills, Sadie Harrison, Erika Jones, Farrah Lawrence-Mackey and Rebecca Martin
Published by University College London, March 2023

Women in the History of Science brings together primary sources that highlight women’s involvement in scientific knowledge production around the world. Drawing on texts, images and objects, each primary source is accompanied by an explanatory text, questions to prompt discussion, and a bibliography to aid further research. Arranged by time period, covering 1200 BCE to the twenty-first century, and across 12 inclusive and far-reaching themes, this book is an invaluable companion to students and lecturers alike in exploring women’s history in the fields of science, technology, mathematics, medicine and culture.

While women are too often excluded from traditional narratives of the history of science, this book centres the voices and experiences of women across a range of domains of knowledge. By questioning our understanding of what science is, where it happens, and who produces scientific knowledge, this book is an aid to liberating the curriculum within schools and universities.